# Taji Goes On Armed Stakeouts As Puerto Rico's Newest Private Detective ## Метаданные - **Канал:** VICE - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPnwsfyYnA - **Дата:** 14.05.2026 - **Длительность:** 17:43 - **Просмотры:** 34,252 ## Описание Taji heads into the shadows of Puerto Rico with a private detective hunting a suspected romance scammer accused of catfishing a victim and stealing thousands of dollars. What starts as a search for answers quickly turns into a tense stakeout, as Taji gets pulled into the strange, risky world of surveillance, deception, and a fraudster who doesn’t want to be found. Music Makers, VICE just launched the Playlist Project, a global song contest built around real life moments. Instead of genres, submit songs to the category that best fits your track. Entries are open now, with CASH prizes and VICE social & editorial features on the line. 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And this is actually a real stakeout? — Yes, it is. — They've taken a lot of money from this person, it seems. Did you used to watch the show Magnum P. I.? — Oh, yeah. — Maybe I have ADHD or something. I don't you know not sure. — Oh, — This what? — Got it. Sorry. Would it be okay with you if I just kind of take a leak in this bottle? — No problem. — Today, I will be following a private detective. He has a case where someone in the states catfished someone, defrauded them, and then fled to the island. He will be tracking them, as will I. — Hello. — Hi, I'm Taji. — Hey, Manuel. — All right. Thank you. Very nice signage. — Yes. — Very nice. — So, what cases have you been recently working on? — It sounds like a good plan. Finding one person out of 3 million people in Puerto Rico seemed nearly impossible, but luckily Emmanuel was an expert and he was here to show me everything that went into an investigation. — So, are the ones in red kind of the parts of interest, would you say? — I'll have to try to look out if we can see uh anything pertaining to that. Could we go over a couple more details about um what this person is on the run from? He's taking a lot of money from this person, it seems. — Yes. — How much in total? I'm not sure. Is this a woman, a man, or Got it. So, it's a guy that's I guess you could say catfishing a woman in Puerto Rico. So, um it's a woman in the US? — No. — Man in the US. Okay. So, it's a uh It's a little guy, man in the US tricking a woman in Puerto Rico. Okay. — So basically, it's very complicated. What is the next plan for the day? Cool. So, um I guess you could kind of, you know, give me the exact plan, the time, the schedule, so I know where to be. Awesome. And maybe what time you think we're thinking? — Perfect. We'll work it out. We'll find — Okay. Black hat. Yes. And the assistant, so I guess it's important to not I think I understand what you're saying. You don't want anyone to see me, right? Like, you know, I don't want Don't be late. Yes. — And don't not wear black, cuz I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to cause any problems to your case. All black? All black. Right on time. All right. ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPnwsfyYnA&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) Sure. I'd love to grab some breakfast with you before we say goodbye. Perfect. Okay. Yeah, thank you. Yes. Definitely. Yeah, sounds fun. Thank you. I was curious what being on the radio would be like, but for now, we had to focus on finding this woman. Or man, or whoever they were. And even though we had a lot of work ahead of us, we first had to eat. What qualities do you need to be a good assistant to the detective? Like, for me. — Yes, it's definitely difficult for me sometimes to stay focused. So, I definitely need to try hard to stay on the ball because I could see easily missing that one moment if I'm on my phone, if I'm distracted. You know, maybe I have ADHD or something. I don't you know, not sure. You know, kind of all over the place sometimes. Not sure what it is. — Would there be any bathroom breaks during the surveilling or No. No break. Wow. So, make sure before to use the bathroom. Thank you. You can't use like a little bottle or a cup? No. Yeah? No, but maybe distracting if you're trying to do this and then the person gets, right? Yeah. So, we have to focus tonight. I couldn't imagine a better detective to be working with. I'm his assistant for the day. But unfortunately, Emmanuel had last minute family plans for the night. So, I would be doing the stakeout with one of his employees. It feels very cool being a private detective assistant. Because anonymity is very important in the surveillance world, Emmanuel asked for us to blur the detective's face and alter his voice. We're going to be looking for a Toyota Highlander. It's going to be black. We got our tag here. Last number 227. My first task was simple. Take a photo of the surveillance location for documentation purposes. But being a detective's assistant was already proving to be harder than I thought. Hmm. I think it's on like long shutter. I'll figure it out. Don't worry. This one's a little too trippy. Oh, that's how this works. All right, I finally figured the camera out. It's been a while, but I think I figured it out. I'm going to get an even better shot right now. Let's see. That's not a Highlander. See, I got options now. I kind of took a brighter one, and then I have that one that's slightly underexposed, so maybe I'll try one more. How long have you been doing this for? — Well, I was a police officer for 14 years, and now um around 10 12 years I've been a detective private detective. — Did you used to watch the show Magnum P. I.? — Oh, yeah. — It's a good show, right? — It was it was, yeah. — The job of a detective, I would learn firsthand, is a lot of waiting around. Care for a donut? — No, I'm good. — But as simple as the job sounds, — Hmm, holy — it can also be very dangerous. — We are out in the streets have better guns than us. We are on the street alone, and that's one of the things you got to be really careful and do the right things and take it easy. That's basically it. Do you can't be hurrying it up or taking shortcuts cuz you're going to get messed up. — As minutes turned into hours, there was still no sign of the Highlander. We haven't seen a Highlander yet though, right? — No. — It's Highlander, right? Not Highliner? — Highlander. Well, that's not a Highlander, is it? That wasn't a Highlander, right? — Nope. — That's not a Highlander, is it? — No, that's a GMC or something like that. — Still uh no Highlander quite yet. Not a Highlander over there. Emanuel then called us about another address that the car might be at. — Okay, perfect. — How do you say Emanuel or Manuel? Oh, he's still talking. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. And before we headed there, I took a final photo of the location. It's a little Dutch angle, but it'll work. — It'll work. — Right on. Um would it be okay with you if I just kind of take a leak in this bottle? — No problem. That's the part of the job. You can't get out of the car. — Thank you. Mouth of it is a little small. Maybe it would have been better off with like a Snapple or something, but ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPnwsfyYnA&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) try to make this work. — Okay. — Yeah, woo. Lot of stray cats here, huh? With a fully drained bladder, we headed across town. It was a long drive, so we got chatting. It's an interesting barbecue joint. I shared some stuff about my life. It's called Vice Media. It's like a documentary company. And I got to hear about the detective's life, too. — I got divorced like 18 years ago. — But you were married. — Oh, yeah. — Wow, how long did that last? — Oh, well, it depends on how you see it. I got kicked out every 2 3 months. — For what? Just not being around? — Other girls. — Yeah? — The uniform You get crazy, man. — Wow. — They see the uniform, the panties drop. — Holy But now you have a girlfriend. — Oh, it's a friend with privilege. — Okay. — I don't want no serious relationship. I have my own house, so nobody kicks me out. — No. — Nice. — So, let's park over here and see what happens. — By this point, I knew the drill. That came out pretty good. You want to check it out? You can critique me if you need. What do you think of it? — It's good. — Nice colors, too, right? — Yeah. — We were trying to enter an apartment's parking lot that we didn't have access to see if the elusive Highlander was there. — Let's go for it. Got it. So. — Good job, man. Just to update our viewer, we've actually entered the second location. Um he followed a car in, which is quite clever, made it in. Have you uh Have you seen the Highlander yet? — No. — Almost. What is that? — It's a RAV4. — Uh And that is not a Highlander that's approaching us, is it? But that was definitely a RAV4 back there, right? — Yep. — All right. Is that a Highlander? No, that's a sedan. — That is more longer. You see the RAV4 is shorter, so — That was a good year for the Highlander. Not bad. I had just about given up any hope we would ever find it, until a car caught my eye. Oh, We saw something. That just might have been it. The car was a match, and now we just needed to make sure the license plate was the same. Finally, some progress. — I don't see any word on it. — Yeah? You want to double-check it? — This way. — Got it. Sorry. — 775 — Close, but no cigar. Do you mind if I take a piss over like for a second? — Got to pee, got to pee. — Okay. So. — My partner told me the investigation's done for the day. — Okay, so we're going to call it. — Yeah, we can call it. Tomorrow you got to wake early, so — Yeah, so maybe we call it. It's not going to find anything tonight. Well, best of luck. Thanks again, man. Really appreciate it. — Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity to um work with you guys, too. — It was a valiant effort, but sometimes a detective just knows when to call it quits. Have a great night. Thank you so much. And while this Toyota Highlander escaped me tonight, I'm confident that Emmanuel and his team will eventually find it. I did feel inadequate that we didn't succeed, but I couldn't drown in the sorrow of the situation because I needed a good night's sleep for my on-air appearance tomorrow. Good morning. I like how your door is open that way. I wasn't expecting that. It's nice. This is nice, big screen. Do you use this for the detective work sometimes? Before we headed to the radio station, Emmanuel and I continued our morning tradition of grabbing breakfast at our favorite bakery. And this time, he brought his daughter along for the ride, too. How does this thing work? Oh, thank you. Wow. Fancy. — That's the station for today. — Oh, wow. Awesome. The show was simple. On the previous week's episode, Emmanuel took three calls about cases that needed some detective work. He had spent the week trying to solve the cases, and on this episode, he would let the audience know how it all went. And if he was successful, that's where I would come in. That's perfect. Hopefully, my role as detective's assistant would be more helpful this time around. ### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPnwsfyYnA&t=900s) Segment 4 (15:00 - 17:00) — I had never been on the radio before, and my Spanish was not great. So, yet again, I was learning that assisting a detective was not easy. Oh, sorry. — Yeah, I am his assistant. — After I barely made it through my introduction, we took a commercial break. — Um Maybe hot chocolate. Thank you so much. — And then, we got into the cases. Just as I suspected, Emmanuel was able to solve all three of them. — Case one resolved, right? — We solved the case. — Three for three. — Three for three, right? — All resolved. This guy has a very solid record, at least for this week. — Nice to meet you. Thanks for having us. Please look out for our video on Vice. Good job, man. — You like it? — Is that a wrap now, or that's it? Good job. Yeah, that was really good. Thank you. Wow, he solved the case. — From a late-night stakeout all the way to my first radio appearance. This is a good week. You had three out of three this week. Just another day in the life of a detective's assistant. — All the cases were solved, right? — All of them. This guy has three out of three this week. Wow, good job, man. Three out of three. — Yeah. — This isn't your first time on the radio. Wow, great job. You're a natural on the radio. — Yeah. It's good. — Thank you for bringing me along on so many of these opportunities. — Okay. — It was time for the Vice crew to head back to America, and I felt great that I got to show them my new home. Puerto Rico is a special place, one that's filled with otherworldly phenomena. Majestic creatures. Come on, go. And unsolvable mysteries. That's not a Highlander, is it? But what I really love about Puerto Rico is the people. And I hope you got to learn how amazing they are, too. Thanks for watching stories from Puerto Rico. Please like, subscribe, and don't forget to ring that bell. Sorry, that was probably the worst delivery I've ever done in my life. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/52423*