The First Clip on a Spycam is Usually the Perp

LA - Baton Rouge Police detectives are attempting to identify a man who is believed to have placed a small video camera in the men’s urinal at the office building of 4000 S. Sherwood Forest.

According to police, the camera was found by a male using the restroom.

The camera was retrieved and an analysis was completed in which the image of this individual was observed.

Anyone with information on the identity of this individual is urged to contact the Special Victims Division at 225-389-3853 or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-7867. video

What is the First Thing a Spycam Sees?

All together now...
"The dumb owner setting it up!"

A bungling voyeur was captured on a video camera he set up to record women using the toilet at a party - in a stunt inspired by an American Pie film.

Adam Stephen Barugh, 26, used velcro to hide the small digital camera beneath a sink directly facing a toilet, after being invited to a house in Brotton.

His solicitor Paul Watson told Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday that the “prank” was inspired by watching the comedy film American Pie: Bandcamp, which features women being secretly filmed...

During the party, a female at the house noticed a small blue light coming from beneath the sink while using the toilet, and alerted her mum and sister.

Quickly hooking the camera up to a laptop, they discovered it had captured a full facial shot of Barugh setting up the camera, and videos of two women using the toilet. more

Huff Butt Dial Blues

If a person accidentally calls someone from their cell phone, do they have a right to privacy protecting any conversation heard on the other end? The courts don’t think so.

Jim Huff, then chairman of the Kenton County (Kentucky) Airport Board, which manages Cincinnati’s international airport, was at a conference in Italy on October 24, 2013, when he unintentionally dialed airport offices while his phone was in his pocket and reached Carol Spaw. Spaw listened to Huff’s conversation for 90 minutes, even writing down some of his remarks and passing them along to a third party.

Huff claimed Spaw’s actions violated his right to privacy, since he never intended to “pocket dial” her in the first place.

But a federal judge didn’t agree, ruling individuals don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy due to the common problem of pocket dialing and “butt calls.” (more) (sing-a-long)

Russia: Fireball Over Wyoming Wasn't Spy Satellite

Russia - The Defense Ministry has challenged reports that a Kobalt-M spy satellite reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burnt up over the U.S., potentially leaving Russian military intelligence photos lying in Colorado or Wyoming...

The satellite, launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near Arkhangelsk on May 6, was not equipped to digitally transmit its photographs back to its handlers at Russia's military intelligence unit, the GRU. Instead, it was designed to drop its film in special canisters from space onto Russian territory.

Interfax reported Tuesday that the satellite may have been attempting to position itself to drop a canister back to Earth, when it moved into too low of an orbit — thereby falling back to earth over the U.S. It is possible that much of the satellite and its photos survived, and are now sitting somewhere in the U.S. midwest. (more)

Footage as it passed over Atyrau, Kazakhstan...

You Know Spying Paranoia Has Gone Too Far When...

...a neighbors' spying fears may sink young seadog's pirate ship.

UK - When his parents built a play pirate ship in his back garden, four-year-old Joseph Bailey was thrilled.

The wooden ship, crafted from recycled timber, became his pride and joy and the ‘labour of love’ was admired by everyone who saw it.

But then a neighbor complained to the council that Joseph was invading their privacy, claiming he could spy on them over the fence.

And despite his parents erecting a bamboo screen to solve any privacy issues, the 19ft by 8ft ship, complete with Jolly Roger, now faces demolition. (more)

P.S. The "pirate" doesn't appear to own a spyglass.

Amateur Hour: Spying Politicos Leave Their Video Behind

MI - For the third time this year, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer is accusing Republicans of attempting to spy on his campaign.

But this time, the suspected political subterfuge involves a high-tech hidden camera and a video memory disk that fell into the hands of Democrats.


And Republicans are defending their campaign snooping.

Schauer’s campaign and Oakland County Democrats recently came into possession of a tiny disk containing raw video footage of a young woman and man who secretly recorded a Schauer campaign fundraiser June 22 at a private home in Bloomfield Hills.

A spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party acknowledged Wednesday the state party sent staffers... to videotape Schauer and his running mate... (more)

Al Gore Sensed a Change in His Climate

The manager of the King David Hotel, in Jerusalem, said a report by Newsweek’s Jeff Stein, that an Israeli spy was caught in an air conditioner duct while spying on then U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 1998, was “ridiculous,” as the air duct is actually “so small that even a cat cannot walk in it.” (more)

Sports Espionage aka Business Espionage but All About the Money

UK - A spying scandal has rocked the English Premier League, with Cardiff City demanding its defeat against Crystal Palace earlier this month be wiped from the record.

The Welsh club has delivered a five-page letter to Premier League officials claiming that Palace manager Tony Pullis was given the exact starting line-up Cardiff would play several days before the teams met on April 5.

And Cardiff didn’t pull any punches in the letter, pointing the finger squarely at Palace sporting director Iain Moody as the man that obtained the team sheet...
 
How was it all uncovered? The BBC reports that Moody “accidentally” texted the line-up to Crystal Palace legend Dougie Freedman, who happens to be a friend of Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He called him to let him know that the opposition had received inside information. (more)

"My ankle bracelets are so good, I wear one myself!"

CA - FBI agents arrested a Mexican tycoon named Jose Susumo Azano Matsura at his Coronado, Calif. home on Wednesday as part of a political bribery investigation based on captured emails, seized banking records, and covertly recorded conversations.

The unfolding scandal is soaked in irony: Azano is a surveillance evangelist whose company won a secret, no-bid contract with the Mexican military for computer and mobile phone hacking and spying technology in 2011. He is chairman of a company called Security Tracking Devices SA de CV, and he is now chained to a tracking device—on house arrest. (more)

JoJo's TSCM Adventure... as told to the court.

NJ - Former city recreation employee Charles Hall III testified Tuesday that Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni gave him anti-surveillance device to try to detect an FBI bug hidden in the clubhouse next door to JoJo’s Steakhouse on Dec. 23, 2012.

Hall testified on the seventh day of testimony in Trenton Mayor Tony Mack’s trial on bribery and extortion charges in U.S. District Court.

Hall told the court that Giorgianni had him sweep for an FBI listening device to attempt to locate a government bug.

“Nothing really happened,” Hall said. “I don’t know if the device worked at the time.” (more)

Wiretap Boast Makes Mr. Harden Criminal (Darwin Award)

The first of my 2014 Darwin Awards goes to...

OR- Daniel Devon Harden, 38, was arraigned Thursday afternoon on allegations of attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon stemming from a stabbing at a Northeast Portland club on Sept. 23...

Portland police solved the case after Harden boasted about the stabbing, which was picked up during an unrelated federal wiretap investigation into a cocaine-trafficking ring, according to court records. (more)

Spy Drone Pisses Off Dr. Wee

KUALA LUMPUR - The two men, who allegedly spied on the home of MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong (Deputy Minister of Education Malaysia) using a hexacopter, claimed that they were only testing the machine and not spying...

Both men have denied that they are members of a political party...

Dr Wee, when contacted, said the excuses given by the two men were ridiculous and urged police to investigate the matter further.

“Why would a photographer from Kluang come all the way to Cheras to take aerial photographs of my housing area and test the machine?” he said, adding that the footage in the camera showed it to be zooming in on only one or two houses.

He urged the authorities to push for more stringent rules and regulations on the use of such devices.

It was reported that the remote-controlled hexacopter, which had been allegedly spying on his bungalow in Bukit Tiara, Cheras on Aug 8, had fallen on the roof of the balcony of Dr Wee’s neighbour after hitting the lightning arrester. (more)

The Back Story
His neighbour’s 14-year-old son found the vehicle and informed his parents but his parents did not suspect anything amiss and told him to just throw it away.

However, the boy removed a chip attached to a tiny video camera from the vehicle and, together with his 15-year-old sister, played it on the computer. They made the shocking discovery and the family quickly informed Dr Wee.

Dr Wee collected the craft from his neighbor only on Thursday.

Dr Wee, who showed five short video clips extracted from the chip and recorded on Aug 5, said the hexa­copter was aimed in the direction of his house and his neighbour’s.

The video clip showed two men handling the hexacopter in its initial clip (Darwin Award!). In another, the camera screen paused when a security guard was going on his patrolling rounds and resumed when the guard moved away. (more)

"That ain't my phone." (Extra penalty point.)

Maryland Terrapins running back Wes Brown was arrested on charges of second-degree assault, theft under $1,000, and illegal use of wiretapping on Wednesday, Baltimore Police confirmed.

Police were attempting to question Brown as a person of interest in the investigation of a non-fatal shooting, police say, when the sophomore assaulted the officer and ran away. They say Brown was recording his conversation with the officer on a cellphone in his pocket, without the officer’s knowledge – a felony in the state of Maryland.

University of Maryland Police say the cell phone Brown used to record the officer was stolen. (more)

Interesting Question About Jamming Bugs & SpyCams

Q. "Looking for a bug jammer that will block out all bugs video or audio near my doorway looking at the rj4000 from the bug jammer store wondering if what they say is true they claim it will block 1 g bugs and 1.2 g bugs with a jamming frequency between 900 to 1000 mhz and 1100 mhz to 1300mhz for bugs"

A. Good thing you asked.  

You really don't want to solve your problem this way.

Here's why...
• Jamming is illegal in the U.S. http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jammer-enforcement
"seizure of unlawful equipment" " subjects the operator to possible fines, imprisonment, or both"

• Your imported purchase runs the risk of being confiscated by Customs before it even reaches you.

• The RF jammer RJ4000 ALSO jams 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and 1.5 GHz GPS signals. Your neighbors will complain.

Estimated area of noticeable interference. Actual jamming area is less.

But, yes, it will probably do what they say, assuming the bug/spycam transmitter is less powerful than the jammer's transmitter.

Best advice: Think of an alternate way to solve your concerns. ~Kevin

Burglar Used SpyCams to Case High-Income Homes

The discovery of a hidden camera may help solve a series of break-ins at upscale homes in several North Texas cities.



"This one has already been camouflaged," said Dalworthington Gardens police Det. Ben Singleton, holding what looks like a piece of bark that would go unnoticed in most yards.

It's actually a video camera not much bigger than a matchbox, and it's activated by a motion detector. Such cameras turned up in March planted outside several upscale homes in Dalworthington Gardens.

"I've never seen anything like this," Singleton said. (more)

Lawsuit: Failure to Proactively Prevent Spying

A coffee shop staged a failed cover-up after a lawyer planted spy cameras in its restrooms, a class of customers claim in court.

Lead plaintiff Roderick Smith says he discovered a spy camera in the restroom of a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Encino last year, and that personal injury attorney Mark Daniel Wenzel planted another camera a week later.

Corporate owner International Coffee & Tea LLC failed to "proactively prevent" this spying, according to the complaint in Superior Court...

Detectives allegedly identified Wenzel as the culprit because the spy cam's own footage captured him during the installation process.

"The police sent pictures of defendant Wenzel to all the Coffee Bean shops in the area, and weeks later, in or about November of 2011, defendant Wenzel was apprehended by the police on a visit to the Coffee Bean located at the intersection of Woodley and Ventura at 16101 Ventura Boulevard in Encino, California, where another hidden recording device was also uncovered," the complaint says.

Meanwhile Coffee Bean superiors allegedly told staff to keep the incident to themselves. (more)

Dedicated spycam'ers plant multiple devices — in this case, at least three before the case was solved.

All businesses need to "proactively prevent spying" (especially optical spying). Schools, country clubs and companies dealing with the public use our services on a regular basis. Contact us.

Proactive inspections are cheap insurance. Inaction leads to lawsuits and lost customer goodwill.

Spy Project Corporate Espionage Case Settles Out Of Court

CO - Paragon Dynamics Inc., an Aurora defense contractor, is paying $1.15 million to settle allegations it stole bid information from Raytheon Corp. about spy agency projects over which the companies competed in 2009... 

Around July 31, 2009, an unidentified senior software director for Paragon used computer access to Raytheon’s systems in Aurora to obtain Raytheon’s bids for two NRO projects — code named Antietam and Savannah — plus other information, the settlement agreement says.

Security cameras caught the employee faxing some of the information to the president of Paragon Dynamics, who forwarded it to someone at a company Paragon partnered with to compete against Raytheon for the NRO’s Antietam contract, the government said. (more)

Another Butt Dialing Lands Man in the Can

PA - A Scranton man faces drug charges after he accidentally dialed 911 while he met with a drug dealer, recording the entire conversation at Lackawanna County dispatch center Wednesday, Scranton police said...

The Lackawanna County Communications Center called Scranton police to say there was an open line to a phone that was recording a conversation inside a vehicle on the 100 block of West Market Street regarding narcotics activity and a man named "Rick," according to the complaint.

Police tracked Mr. Kryzanowski to his apartment, where they found him talking with slow and slurred speech. Police also saw pill bottles and a bottle cap with water in it in plain sight, according to the complaint. (more) (more butt dialing stories)

The Incredible Tale of the Spying Broken Heart Surgeon

A Connecticut heart surgeon has been ordered by a civil jury to pay $2 million to his ex-girlfriend after admitting to planting cameras in her home.

"And this year's award goes to..."

Dr. William V. Martinez, a divorced father of nine, admitted to planting surveillance cameras in the home of D'Anna Welsh, a physician's assistant at Hartford Hospital. He also said he planted a tracking device in her car.

The Hartford Courant reported Welsh and Martinez dated from sometime in 2001 to February 2007, when Martinez broke up with Welsh.

Later that year, a plumber discovered "suspicious" equipment embedded in a crawl space beneath the floor of Welsh's home. She first called the police. Then she called Martinez, who admitted to planting the equipment in her home.

"Martinez further admitted to [her] that he had been viewing video of her bedroom and that he had also been eavesdropping from his car via audio devices he installed in her home," says the civil complaint.

At the time Welsh did not press charges. However a year later, Martinez mentioned details of Welsh's life to her that he had no way of knowing about, leading her to believe he was still spying on her, the newspaper said.

Martinez was charged in criminal court with eavesdropping and voyeurism in 2008, and agreed to two years of accelerated rehabilitation.

Welsh, still uneasy, hired a security firm to sweep her home in January 2010, the newspaper said. She filed a civil suit against Martinez in July 2010 after the firm discovered a camera hidden inside her TV. (more)

Another SpyCam'er Shoots Himself - Darwin Award

The Wallingford Police Department released a photograph of the person who they said they would like to speak with after a camera was discovered inside a Walmart dressing room in early June. 

Click to enlarge.

Police said the camera was set up inside the dressing room and was only recording for a short period of time before it was discovered by an employee.

Police said there was no indication that anyone was actually filmed while undressing.

He is described as a man in his early 20s and was wearing a light green-striped shirt and a Hartford Whalers tan colored hat.
 (more)