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 Big risks . . . Big rewards!  
PI's 'worldwide' rescues include Arlington

By Ana Barrett
News-Mirror Staff Writer

   Pat Rutherford has always understood a certain element of danger comes with a private investigator's career. As he accumulated an increasingly thick list of successfully resolved child-abduction cases, the owner of Worldwide Tracers said he found just reasons for his chosen profession.
   It is the scores of reunions between distraught parents and stolen children that add lift to Rutherford's voice and a smile to his lips, nearly concealed beneath a cropped Santa's mustache and beard. Those reunions have taken the PI (Private Investigator) around the world, tracing kidnapped children to exotic places like India, Germany and Turkey.
   Last week they took him only miles from his downtown Mansfield office, north to Arlington. Through a referral from the Salvation Army, Rutherford found himself plotting a child rescue literally in his own back yard.
   "This mother hadn't seen her kids in six months; she was ready to go in there with a tank," Rutherford began. Several weeks before he had gotten an out-of-state call from a woman named Veronica. Before Christmas her husband had vanished, taking their two small children with him.
   "We did some checking around and found the husband right here in Arlington," he continued. "We set up our surveillance and planned a way to kidnap the kids back."
   To avoid any legal complications, Rutherford said Veronica would have to be the only one who could "kidnap" Joe, 6, and Marti, 4, from the northeast Arlington apartment complex. The woman, accompanied by her sister Joann and mother, drove to Texas last week to do just that.
   "I worked with my son (Kirk) on this case," Rutherford explained. "We knew that we couldn't even touch the kids... that would be kidnapping.. but the mother could. We worked out a feasible plan and walked her through the training so everyone knew exactly what to do."
   Through the surveillances work, Rutherford and his team knew Joe was attending school. A baby-sitter walked him to a neighbor's apartment each weekday morning, little Marti always at their side. That, he explained, was the prime time for Veronica to get her children.
   Early Tuesday morning (May 13) Pat, Kirk, Veronica, Joann, and the grandmother sat in two strategically parked cars in the apartment complex. As if on cue, a woman exited a ground-level apartment, crossing just yards from the first vehicle where the adults caught their first glimpse of the youngster in half a year.
   "The mother got out of the car, and the little girl ran to her when she saw her - girls will do that," Rutherford said, recalling the second of joy the two shared in the first hug. The celebration lasted just that long, however.
   "... the boy turned and ran up the stairs," the PI continued. "He was scared. His father had told him he would kill him if he ever saw his mother again."
   Before the child could run through the open apartment door, Joann had scooped him into her arms. Together, the two women quickly retreated to the waiting car leaving the sitter dazed by the unexpected seizures.
   "You only get once chance to do this right," he continued. "This time, I told Kirk, was perfect. Anything could go wrong... the kids could have been sick that day; the sitter could have left the girl inside; a neighbor could have dialed 9-1-1; the cops could have gotten there before we had the kids."
   Aside from a couple of department store delivery men, Rutherford said few people had opportunity to view the brief spectacle. As Veronica sped away from the complex, the second car blocked the street exit. Rutherford made his own 9-1-1 call, identifying himself and explaining to the authorities the situation that just transpired.
   "I tell them it's a family dispute involving children," he said. "They usually drop it after that."
   A custody hearing was scheduled in Utah, May 16. Joe and Marti's fate rests in a judge's hands now, Rutherford said.
   "Boy, I feel good about it," he finally exclaimed. "This mother could have lost her kids forever." A father himself, the local PI added he felt God had watched over this scenario, a blessing considering Rutherford once lost a valued associate assigned to a similar surveillance case.

Photo: Pat Rutherford and son Kirk share a brief moment of happiness at an undisclosed Arlington motel when the private investigators rejoined Veronica, left, with her children Joe and Marti, also shown above. The woman's sister Joann, at right, also played an instrumental role in the May 13 child rescue done through Worldwide Tracers in Mansfield.

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