How It Works: Lawyers, insurance companies, and private citizens hire McKeever for a base rate of $100 an hour. McKeever advertises heavily in phone books because he has almost no repeat private customers. At-home Internet sleuths have cut McKeever’s locating business, but surveillance is steady.
Annual Revenue: $120,000 ($90,000 is profit before tax).
Most-Profitable Jobs: When a spouse becomes obsessive; McKeever spent more than 130 hours following an ex-husband for a current custody case.
Why Men Are Better Clients: They are nearly always wrong when they suspect a cheating spouse, but they often won’t believe it and will keep McKeever tailing. (Women are 90 percent correct when they suspect their husbands.)