One of the jobs that we are often hired to do is process serving. This is where we’re approached by a solicitor who wants us to help serve legal documents to someone. It’s not as simple as just posting a letter to an address – process serving must follow a strict, well, process, to ensure that the recipient has definitely been handed the documents.
We’ve had some interesting and tricky tasks with process serving, but not quite as wild as some of those that have happened to other investigators and full-time servers around the world. Let’s look at some of the crazy stories from process serving – primarily from the US, because things are often more wild there.
Fake Dating Profile
One person on Reddit reported that their boss was trying to serve someone who was being evasive. They hired a model and set up a fake Facebook account for her, and she then added the recipient and started to flirt.
One thing led to another and he agreed to meet up for a date – where she served him the court papers. Takes catfishing to another level, doesn’t it?
Served at an NBA Playoff
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest basketball players in the world – but for a long time in 2023, he’s been chased by process servers related to a cryptocurrency lawsuit. It appears that the process servers were finally able to pin him down – at an NBA Playoff game.
O’Neal was actually co-hosting the pre-game show with other legends of the game for TV. As soon as they finished the broadcast, the server threw two sets of papers onto the TV studio desk where Shaq was sitting, and yelled at him that they were legal documents and that he had 20 days to reply.
At least he didn’t serve them during the TV broadcast…
Awkward Wait Times
A quirky little story from Reddit again, this time for a husband who wanted to serve divorce papers to his wife. One problem – this was during the COVID pandemic and both lived in the same home during lockdown.
The husband invited the process server to the building, and let him in, but the server wasn’t legally allowed to follow the husband into their apartment. Instead he had to wait for five minutes after the husband had gone back inside, to knock and then wait for the wife to answer the door.
That must’ve been very awkward for all parties.
Hot Dog Stand
Sometimes private investigators and process servers have to engage in a little bit of undercover work to get the job done, but it’s rarely as dramatic as you’ll see on TV and in movies, with full-blown disguises. But someone has claimed they witnessed their little league baseball coach get served legal papers by a hot dog seller.
You have to wonder how many hot dogs the process server had to sell until they were able to get close enough to the recipient to serve them papers.
Setting Dogs on a Server?
Another high-profile case which has seen process servers in the media is that of Lauren Boebert and her husband Jayson. Lauren Boebert is a well-known Republican, who is rarely far from controversy. But this time it was her husband who apparently caused some fireworks.
When Lauren sent server Mike Estep to serve Jayson papers, Jayson was drinking a beer and cleaning his gun – already an intimidating sight. But he then refused to accept service and, according to accusations, set his dogs on the server.
It is rarely a dangerous job for our team at EJM Investigations, but it goes to show that process serving is not without risk.
Christmas Delivery
How do you serve someone legal papers when the sender and recipient hate each other, and she is doing everything she can to avoid receiving the papers? Well one clever server knew that she was hosting a Christmas party, and so turned up at the door as the party was underway, yelling out “Christmas Delivery” and with the legal papers wrapped up inside a huge present.
As soon as the intended recipient answered the door, the server was able to hand over the papers inside the box, announcing their contents.
Sometimes a gift is not all that it seems.
Serving a Stripper – At Work
One last tale – a young person fresh from college was hired by a private investigator to serve papers to a woman working as a stripper. However, they were unable to find her home address, and so the only place they could serve her was at the bar where she worked.
The server had the sense to avoid handing over the papers in the main bar area, where bouncers could’ve easily turned the situation ugly. Instead they paid for a private dance, used the time to confirm the identity of the stripper, and then at the end they served the papers.
The Reality of Process Serving
While these are some fascinating tales from process servers, they don’t offer a true reflection of the work that we carry out when we effect service.
While we would be willing to go to some unusual lengths to serve legal papers, in most cases we simply use our expertise in tracking people down, and we can then deliver the papers in a timely fashion. And of course, we’re experts in the required statements and evidence to show that service has been carried out.
It’s fun to look at some of these stories of undercover work, fake Christmas presents and more, but if you just want a professional and effective team to carry out process serving tasks for you without the drama, then we’re here to help. Call us on 01772 334700 if you want to know more.
And feel free to browse the rest of that Reddit thread if you want to see some more crazy stories from process servers.