by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Protecting CEOs, installing hidden cameras, doing undercover work and running surveillance equipment is all in a day’s work for Larry Jefferson.
Jefferson is the lead investigator for the Jacksonville branch of A Very Private Eye, Inc., an Orlando-based investigation and surveillance company.
AVPE recently moved its Middleburg office to the 17th floor of the Bank of America tower.
Jefferson said the move was necessary because many of AVPE’s clients are located downtown, including their largest client, an investment firm in the same building.
As a company, Jefferson said AVPE has many different kinds of specialties and caters to a variety of clients.
“We do full service investigations,” he said. “Our services range from background investigations for business to infidelity investigations for individuals.”
Jefferson said AVPE also handles workers compensation surveillance, undercover work and executive protection. The Jacksonville branch handles about 200 cases per year, he said.
Besides corporate intelligence, executive protection is one of Jefferson’s favorite specialties. Though he has been with AVPE since it began in 1996, Jefferson has been interested in bodyguard work since he joined the Air Force in 1982.
“It is something that I have always wanted to do,” he said. “I went into the military with the desire to do something of that nature.”
While in the military, Jefferson was stationed in England until his service ended in 1986. He continued to live in Europe and that is where he learned is trade, he said. After working with several executive protection agencies in the United Kingdom, Jefferson came back to the U.S., where he has been licensed to be a private investigator in Florida since 1994.
Besides his extensive training, Jefferson said his instinctive protective nature and innate powers of observation got him to his current position.
“I felt that I was cut out to do this kind of work,” he said. “I am doing what I love to do and what I was suited for.”
At AVPE, Jefferson works with about 10 agents, five of whom are located in Jacksonville. Jefferson said the investigators work with an extensive network of law enforcement officers, investigators and security operators to gather information for their clients.
Besides its offices in Florida, AVPE is planning on opening a branch in New York within the next two months.