For process servers in Mustang, Oklahoma who have served court papers and other legal documents for any length of time, they know they must become highly creative to get proper, legal service upon evasive individuals. Since some people who are avoiding process service have ring cameras, ask their coworkers to cover for them, and change addresses often, it is helpful if process servers come prepared to serve papers to these difficult people with a ploy already in mind. To help all process servers reading this who need some creative ideas, the owners of our private investigation agency in Enid, OK have devised a list of creative methods to serve legal documents to evasive defendants. This list of ideas is noted below as follows, and it is only meant as a partial list of savvy ideas:
The “Friend” Ploy:
One of the most basic yet effective ways to trick someone into getting served is to pretend to be a friend. This is most effective when a family member opens the front door instead of the defendant. It also comes in as a handy tactic, when you must serve someone at work and think the individual’s coworkers will try to cover for him if they know the real reason you have come to see him.
When using this method to serve elusive respondents, give a common first and last name if asked, and know what it is in advance, so you do not struggle to produce one on the spot. Assume the family member or colleague will ask you who you are, because this is an extremely common curiosity that many people will have a natural inclination to ask. The best process servers, if they are charismatic and convincing, can pull off this tactic often.
Food Delivery Scheme:
Since the age of food delivery has taken off, many people expect to see food delivery workers coming by homes at all hours of the day and night. If you as a process server in Del City, OK try this method to serve someone, then make sure to carry a pizza box or other food container to make your ruse look more plausible. Adding an Uber Eats or DoorDash sticker or neon light to your car when using this trick can also greatly add to the believability, making more people willing to open the door and openly converse about their identities.
Remember that it matters not if the person you are serving papers to did not order a pizza or other food. Indeed, food delivery drivers make mistakes all the time and end up at the wrong houses and businesses, so this ploy can still work well because the process server in Watonga, Oklahoma can pretend she/he/they simply made an innocent mistake by going to the wrong place.
The conversation the Oklahoma process server can have with the people at the “wrong house” while “trying to find the ‘right’ location” can help reveal the identities of the people living there without them knowing the real motivations the disguised process server had for asking. By the time they find out that the “food delivery driver” is really a process server near me looking to serve them, it will be too late for them to run and hide or deny the identity of the others living there.
Package Delivery Driver Trick:
Pretending to be a UPS or FedEx package delivery drive with the “wrong address” is a classic process serving trick. Skip traces can help locate a defendant’s number, if the legal pro does not already have it. Then the process server in Del City, OK can call up the respondent from a phone line that is not traceable back to the name of a process server, private eye, or legal services company and can pretend to be a UPS/FedEx delivery driver who is looking for the right house to bring the package to.
As with the friend ruse, have a name in mind that the “package” is “from” before calling the respondent on the phone, because the person will ask. The defendant might also ask what city and state the package is from, so have a city and state in mind before you call. If respondents ask what is in the package, just tell them you do not know but that it is a box. If they think it is a letter or set of documents and are expecting someone to try to serve them, they may be less inclined to cooperate because they will not want to get served. They may, however, be less suspicious of a box because most people do not try to serve others by sending legal documents in a box. By planning this out beforehand instead of going in blind and inexperienced, you will increase your chances of tricking the defendant into getting served.
Missionary Process Server:
Some process servers also go out with Bibles, Torahs, or Qurans in hand and go from house to house proselytizing to others about a certain religion, God, or goddess. The best legal pros end up only at the defendant’s home, offering some good passages from the religious tome, offering a prayer, and conversing with the people inside the home about their identities. If the process server in Ardmore, OK is adept and charismatic, then chances of successfully serving the respondent with this ruse will increase if the individual is religious and has positive attitudes toward religious missionaries.
Stranded Traveler:
Some process servers in Chickasha will also pretend that their car or other vehicle “broke down” close to the defendant’s home. This makes standing outside and watching for the person to arrive or leave much less obvious and suspicious. Thus, stand outside and hide the court papers in your pocket and wait for the person to come or go. Sometimes defendants in these situations even offer to help the “stranded” process server, making the entire serve much easier.
Missing Dog/Cat Trick:
Some process servers in Tulsa also pretend they have “lost” their precious dog or cat. Needing help finding their beloved angel, they go from house to house seeking to find their beloved family member. Of course, our process server has not really lost anyone, and thus they only end up at the defendant’s home.
While the respondent will surely not have seen the nonexistent cat, dog, iguana, or bird, this meeting does present an ideal way to casually converse and find out more about the person and others living in the home. With enough charisma, a friendly smile, and a carefully crafted backstory already in place, process servers in Choctaw, Oklahoma can yield effective results and score a major process serving win with this unique method.
Pregnant Mistress Ploy:
Some female or transgender male process servers will use the pregnant mistress ruse, going up to the front door and telling the wife or other family member who may be suspicious and thus screening visits to the home by unknown people that she is pregnant by the person she is trying to serve. The process server should make no mention of trying to serve anyone, instead just seeking to talk with the person because of the pregnancy.
To make the ploy work better, if not pregnant then using those fake baby bumps you can buy online can help convince someone who answers the front door that the legal pro really did get knocked up and needs to address the situation. This only works for younger process servers who are serving cisgender male or transgender female defendants capable of impregnating the process server, so it has limited uses but is certainly creative and has its uses in the right circumstances.
Welfare Check Scheme:
Sometimes elusive defendants will pretend not to be at home, yet their kids will be inside. When this happens, process servers should call the police and request a welfare check on the kids. They must not tell the police why they are there, because they will not come. Instead, tell them you were passing by and saw kids there who looked alone and wanted law enforcement personnel to come ensure the children are okay.
When the police arrive, they will force the adults inside to open the door or may force their way inside. Not wanting their front door broken nor their children taken into protective custody, most adult parents in the home will go ahead and answer the door when police come knocking. When they do, the process servers in Ponca City, OK can then serve them with the court papers, recording it and laughing as they do about how cunning their trick was.
Person with an Emergency Plot:
Some process servers in Muskogee, OK have had great success by pretending to be a person with an emergency. Whether the ruse involves a rabid dog or a serial killer who is chasing them, they must plan it out well. Claiming a home is on fire can also work, but be careful because you do not want anyone calling 911 for help. Falsely reporting a crime is a misdemeanor, so this trick can work well but process servers in Oklahoma must be careful in how far they take it and use this method judiciously.
Siege Serves/Surveillance:
Siege serves are where a process server waits down the road from the defendant’s home and waits for them to enter or leave. This tricky method is most effective on elusive defendants who use doorbell cameras and other methods to determine who is coming up to their door and what they are carrying. Thus, these respondents simply and discreetly sit back in the comfort of their home or office setting like a king or queen in a castle, ignoring the ringing doorbell and knocks on the door. Indeed, why should they bother to answer? It is not like process servers in Piedmont are police officers with criminal warrants Court Papers.
For this sneaky method to work well, it is best to wait at least seven houses away in a vehicle with darkly tinted windows, because this helps process servers in Shawnee, Oklahoma avoid detection. Indeed, private investigators in Edmond often do the same thing when conducting surveillance private investigations, because once they get burned or spotted by the person of interest (POI), their PI time for that day is certainly over.
Most individuals eventually leave or enter their home or office, but some take many hours to do so because they do not want anyone to serve them with court papers. However, the cost to make this method successful can become extremely expensive for the client, so make sure that the client is willing to pay and provides the money upfront in case it does not work. This tactic does often work eventually though, so if the financial ability and the process server’s resolve hold fast, it can usually help achieve valid service of process.
As noted above, these are just a few of many different types of creative methods by which to serve elusive and otherwise difficult defendants with court papers and other legal documents. If you are a process server and are still having a tough time serving someone with court papers, please contact the owners of our private detective agency. They will try to brainstorm some new ideas with you to help you find success, because our PI agency’s owners love helping others succeed.
