“Just the facts” approach to uncovering the truth
By Tim Hadac
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post
Managing Editor
Southwest Chicago Post
In a world filled with deception, half-truths and outright lies, Jose Richart seeks the truth, the facts.
And he finds it.
A private detective who launched the Richart Detective Agency earlier this year, Richart is steadily building a business useful to a wide range of individuals and organizations.
A seasoned sleuth with more than a decade of real-world experience, he helps families find missing loved ones. He tracks down stolen vehicles. He works “cheaters” cases where a wife or husband suspects a spouse of infidelity.
Richart also works as a process server for law firm, and he runs detailed background checks of prospective renters for landlords; and checks of job applicants for employers.
“You want to know who you’re hiring, you want to know who you’re renting to,” he says. “I’m not here to judge people, so I don’t put in my two cents; but my job is simply to find out the facts and present them to my client, which is exactly what I do.”
Background
Richart grew up in Little Village, attending Burns School and later Farragut Career Academy and Morton College.
He worked as a mechanic in a family-owned shop in Cicero. When the family sold the business, he worked as a tow truck driver and later as a repo man.
From there, he trained to work as a private detective and was employed at two different agencies for more than a decade, working in the Chicago area and across a number of states.
But like so many men and women with enterprising souls, Richart decided to be his own boss.
“I’m just the type of person who doesn’t settle,” he says. “I worked for others and I did well, but eventually I thought I want to do this for myself, so I opened my own agency.”
The Richart Detective Agency today
The Richart Detective Agency is currently housed at 5718 S. Archer (at Lockwood)—although a move further west on Archer is planned for the months ahead. That’s just fine with Richart, 48, who lives in the west end of Garfield Ridge with his wife and 17-year-old son.
“It will be that much more convenient to walk to my office,” he says.
Richart is fully licensed and insured. In addition to his private detective work, he has been conducting CCW classes for five years as Illinois Concealed Training, emphasizing gun ownership that is safe and responsible.
He also has offered and continues to offer fingerprinting services.
Richart chuckles at the traditional image of a private detective in a fedora and trench coat, walking down a dark street.
“For a lot of people, that’s what a private detective is,” he says. “But in the 21st century, a private detective is more likely to be looking at a computer screen. Technology has changed detective work and made us far more effective than ever. If you want to learn the facts about anyone or anything, we can find them and present them to you. And our tech tools are getting better and more effective all the time.”
The job has many rewards.
“I enjoy being a private detective. It’s a very exciting job. You always seem to deal with different situations,” he says.
One of those rewards was helping a panicked family find a relative with a mental disability who had been released by a hospital but then went missing. He was missing for 17 days and lost almost 40 pounds in the ordeal. Richart played a role in reuniting him with his loved ones.
To help those who want to investigate a career as a private detective, Richart has developed a “basic training” curriculum to get prospects started. The 20-hour course typically runs from 6 to 10 p.m. over five evenings, via Zoom. Those who complete the course receive a certificate and are qualified to begin a career as a private detective.
“This is challenging work—not physically, but mentally,” Richart says. “But it’s always interesting, and it’s rewarding.”
To reach the Richart Detective Agency, call (773) 645-7996 or visit richartdetectiveagency.com.
