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A former security director and police officer for the town of Ocean
City, Md., IUP graduate Matthew Hilty is now the owner of OC
Investigations, a full-service, nationwide investigative agency.
Operating since January, 2005, the company has nearly a dozen
full-time employees, plus hundreds of contract employees and
resources all across the country.
Besides providing
unlimited investigative services, Hilty's agency offers pro bono work in
missing persons cases. “I can’t see charging when a loved one is
missing,” he said. “The work pays for itself with a good feeling.”
Matthew Hilty, left, with his partner,
John
Bukovack, and Sadie
Photo courtesy of Ocean City
Today
Hilty is planning
to hold the first annual OC Investigations Child Identification
Event in the summer of 2006. Area children will be photographed and
assigned an identification number, and parents will receive a packet
along with a bracelet or other identifier. If the child ends up
lost, the identifier instructs the finder to call the Ocean City
beach patrol or the local police.
“The potential is
there for children to get separated from their parents,” said Hilty.
“Especially in a town with so many visitors and distractions, like
the beach and boardwalk.”
Hilty credits his
IUP business courses with preparing him for the business aspect of
running an agency. But his inspiration really began as he was
growing up in Luzerne Mines, Pa., and watching his older sister
become a successful doctor who now lives on the west coast.
“It made a
difference in how I approach my career,” said Hilty. “If you don’t
wake up every morning feeling good about what you do, that’s not
success.”
Hilty got his
start working security at Stapleton library in 1998 while going to
school, and followed that up by working for several Ocean City
hotels in security positions, plus as a seasonal Ocean City police
officer. Working in private security helped him learn to deal with
people, as did his work as a child/family therapist and crisis
intervention instructor in Indiana along with volunteer time with
the Red Cross.
It was while
working in Indiana, raising his young son by himself, that Hilty met
his future wife and colleague. The former Jill Johnson ’01 (daughter
of IUP English professor Sue Johnson), she now works as the agency’s
administrative manager.
 In
the summer of 2004, after working in Ocean City for ten years, Hilty
was offered employment by the FBI. During the background process,
which took over a year, he started planning the early stages of OC
Investigations in case the FBI did not hire him. Before being
offered a position, Hilty realized he could make the same money
working for himself, plus be home to raise his son, Jordan.
“I’m glad I had
private positions before working in the police department,” he said.
“It was like having customer service training.”
Most of his
company’s investigations deal with “typical” private eye matters,
such as following husbands or wives suspected of infidelity. Many
times this is as simple as placing a GPS unit on a vehicle and just
tracing their movements. (In these cases, the client owns the
vehicle, so Hilty has permission to place the GPS unit.) The agency
also serves subpoenas, investigates internet fraud, helps retrieve
deleted information from computers, does background searches, checks
marriage records, and much more.
“Investigations
usually involve lots of time spent on the computer, such as checking
cell phone records and call histories,” said Hilty. “It generally
doesn’t take a lot of time to put the pieces together.”
Hilty is
affiliated with Former Federal Investigators (FFI). FFI assists the
agency with forensic investigations, DNA analysis, fraud, identity
theft, satellite imagery, and more.
“This enables me to commit to
more long-term, nationwide investigations, such as fraud and
embezzlement cases, without exhausting all of my manpower,” said Hilty. “Some of these cases can last weeks, months, and even years.
We can contract those cases to FFI or one of their partners and
still be able to provide services to our local, smaller clients.”
Hilty’s agency
has a good relationship with the local police departments. Hilty
recently added bail enforcement and fugitive recovery (bounty
hunting) to OC Investigations’ list of services.
“The jurisdictions
in this area generally support bounty hunters,” he said. “It’s not
like the TV shows. The police have been very helpful. We don’t step
on anyone’s toes or interfere with police business.”
One of more
unusual cases the agency worked on involved an internet pornography
case. A web site operator had posted photos on several websites of
his ex-wife’s body, but with other heads pasted on top. The most
difficult part was proving to whom the body in the photos belonged.
The investigators had to compare clothing, jewelry, background, and
a small tattoo. The case is still pending, even though the suspect
eventually hung himself.
As Hilty noted, a
modern private investigator requires computer savvy. Hilty estimates
that 75 percent of his time is spent on the computer. Of course, as
both owner and investigator, some of the work is business related,
but still half of his investigation time is spent on line. But
things move fast with computer help—a search that used to take days
can be resolved on line in as little as ten minutes.
The latest
investigator to join the agency is Sadie, a German Shepherd. Certified for
building searches and live scent tracking, she can be hired out and
is also being trained to detect narcotics.
Hilty hopes to
expand his offices into the Baltimore and Washington area and into
Pittsburgh within the next year.
“I will be hiring
dozens of new young detectives over the next couple of years from
all areas of the United States,” said Hilty, “but I will always give
preference to IUP alumni. I know the area, the university, and the
work ethic bestowed upon the university’s graduates.”
Updates about
the Child Identification Event, which will raise money for the Ocean
City Police Department and the Ocean City Beach Patrol, are posted
on the agency’s website,
www.ocinvestigations.com.
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