Spy moms keep eye on Twin Falls

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – About two years ago, two housewives were involved in a high-speed car chase when a man caught them rummaging through his garbage cans.

He chased them through downtown Boise before police intercepted the man, who was later arrested for outstanding warrants and possession of a controlled substance.

If it sounds like a strange story, it is.

That’s because Val Agosta and Mollie Carman are part-time private investigators when they are not doing laundry or driving their kids to school.

They call themselves “undercover mothers” and “spy moms” – the people they investigate have other names for them. And now these private eyes say they are doing more business in Twin Falls.

Quite a bit more, actually. So much so that they’re now looking for office space here.

“I think that some people in Twin need to be tied up because it’s getting really crazy out there,” said Agosta. “We’re now doing a lot of business out there – too much business, it seems.”

She said that about 40 percent of the calls they receive from clients outside Idaho are to request an investigation of someone in Twin Falls.

And some of those cases have been the most interesting, Agosta said.

For example, the two women were asked by a woman outside of Idaho to follow her husband, who was spending a lot of time in Twin Falls.

They found out that the man was having an affair with a woman in Twin Falls who was running a charity, so the undercover mothers decided to take the mistress out to lunch – posed as two mothers interested in contributing to the charity.

“It was really strange because we eventually confronted this woman with a letter from the man’s wife,” Agosta said. “But the woman was more shocked that we were private investigators rather than the fact that her boyfriend was already married to another woman. I don’t know what it is, but things are strange out there.”

Agosta and Carman said they also deal with a lot of child custody cases in Twin Falls, which both woman say are the most emotionally challenging cases.

Although the two spy moms laugh at some of the “close calls” they have experienced with the people they are investigating, local PIs – there are three other firms with offices in Twin Falls – say it’s no laughing matter.

“Not everyone can go out there and do this,” said Stuart Robinson, who retired from the Idaho Department of Law Enforcement and now owns S. Robinson & Associates Investigative Services in Twin Falls. “It can be dangerous, and there are a lot of things you could do out there that are against the law and could pose a problem for the client.”

Still, Robinson said Agosta and Carman have developed a reputation for quality work, and he said there is certainly enough work for everyone – just so long as they are careful.

The undercover mothers, on the other hand, still get a chuckle out of dangerous situations that they have put themselves in, like the high-speed chase in Boise.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “That was one of our highlights of our time.”