First, Pro. Then, College. Now, High School.

FL - Collier County's prep edition of "Spygate'' may have been nothing more than a misunderstanding, or so the coaches at the heart of the mini-controversy claimed on Tuesday. ...

"Spygate'' was one of the names associated with the New England Patriots illegally videotaping sideline calls by opposing teams that the team was penalized for by the NFL earlier this season.

The accusations started flying on Saturday, when Albonizio and a few of his coaches confronted an elderly couple that they believed were filming his team's 44-14 win over McMahon for Naples. (more)

SpyCam Story #396 - Spy Shop Boys

Remember Dumb and Dumber, the two burglars caught on 17 cameras when robbing a spy surveillance gear shop back in July?

Well, we found the video!

Public Audio Surveillance Hits London

UK - "We're well aware of the security cameras already all over the city, but it looks like Londoners will also have to brace themselves for audio surveillance, too. In order to break up gangs, London police have begun a program using audio bugs placed in public places.

Public eavesdropping, sans warrants, by law enforcement is sure to rankle some privacy advocates. Authorities are hoping a drop in crime will quell the inevitable uproar. We shall see." (more) Bugs used to fight London gangs. (more)

"I'm Bugging Your Phone" (with audio clip)

You know eavesdropping and wiretapping are well-entrenched in our society when people are singing about it, dancing to it and even taking it as a moniker - like Wiretap Scars.

Remember???
Eavesdrop - Joanna "Rain" Raphael
Eavesdropping - Carol Slade
Eavesdropping - Anne Lindsay
Eavesdropping - d1sh1tu
Eavesdropping - Michail Sicas
Invitation To Eavesdrop - Shaun Groves
Hanging On The Phone - BWO
The Wiretap - Your Enemies Friends
Probably not. Good listening rarely involves eavesdropping. Hence, the old saying, "An eavesdropper never hears anything good about themselves."

There are tons of Private Investigator, Spy and Detective lyrics, too. Your chances of remembering these are better: Searchin', Peek-A-Boo, Secret Agent Man and the gloved one's famous Somebody Is Watching Me.

Rarely, however, has there been a more blatant expression of illegal eavesdropping than I’m Bugging Your Phone - by The Smith Connection

(from blog.allmusic.com)
...basically tells its addressee to seek a restraining order: “I’m buggin’ your phone, baby / Startin’ an investigation.” It’s not posed as a conditional threat. It’s posed as “I am doing this once I obtain the equipment and access to your telephone.” The protagonist complains about being avoided, finding notes, and some other things. The addressee should’ve allowed the bug to be placed, if only to have held a conversation in which she said, “I am through with that fool, specifically the fool who is bugging my phone.” (more) (audio clip)

Art reflects life.
Eavesdropping is real life.
Take care. Beware.

SpyCam Story #395 - Attentive Maintenence

SD - A Sioux Falls apartment maintenance worker is in jail accused of setting up a camera in his neighbor's apartment to spy on her.

Fifty-three-year-old Burton Morehead is charged with a misdemeanor crime called "trespassing with the intent to eavesdrop."

The 26-year-old woman who lives next door to Morehead found a webcam-style camera in her bathroom ceiling tile. She called 911, and police say they followed the cables into Morehead's apartment, where they were hooked into a TV.

Officers say there were several suspicious-looking holes drilled between the two apartments. (more) (video)

SpyCam Story #394 - Unauthorized Footsie

IL - An East Dundee podiatrist has been charged with eavesdropping and solicitation of sex after police said they found a hidden camera and videotapes and DVDs in his office showing him in sex acts with female patients in an examining room.

Dr. Steven Paul Loheide, 63, of 1002 Twisted Oak in Algonquin, works at Fox Valley Podiatry, 210 Penny Ave. He was charged in court Friday with eavesdropping without consent and possession of an eavesdropping device, both felonies, according to court records.

Loheide also was charged with the misdemeanors of unauthorized videotaping, battery and solicitation of a sex act, according to court records.

East Dundee Police Chief Terry Mee said their investigation began last Wednesday when an employee of Fox Valley Podiatry called police after she found a videotape of herself dressing and undressing in the examination room.

She said she was unaware that the videotaping had occurred and that she found the hidden camera in the examination room. (more) (update)

Five Red Hot 'Shoplifter in Custody' Tips

Charles A. Sennewald, CPP - one of the world's leading shoplifting security experts - shares 5 red hot do not's for when you have a shoplifter in custody:

1. Don't threaten a detained person with any use of force, exposure or incarceration.
2. Don't make any promises of rewards, benefits or leniency in return for cooperation.
3. Don't use any profanity, abusive or offensive at or in the presence of a person detained, even if provoked.
4. Don't belittle, make light of, laugh at or otherwise ridicule a detained person.
5. Don't make any comments about a person's race, ethnic origin or religion.

"Extend the same dignity to the person in your custody, you'd appreciate and hope to receive if the shoe was on the other foot."

Want to know more about Chuck?
Profile: IAPSC.org
Website: shoplifting.com

Landlord accused of eavesdropping on tenants

NY - A landlord has been arrested after being accused of placing an eavesdropping device under the kitchen cabinets of two tenants he was trying to evict, Suffolk County police said Monday.

John Gordon, 48, bought the mini electronic transmitter on the Internet and installed it when the tenants were not home, police said.

Gordon, who has another apartment in the house, was arrested Sunday and charged with burglary and eavesdropping. (more) (more)

...and you thought O.J. was bugged.

O.J. Simpson apparently doesn't have enough to worry about with two co-defendants in his Vegas robbery case ready to testify against him. Now a private eye who worked for Simpson is alleging that the disgraced gridiron star once hired notorious Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano to bug and harass Nicole Brown Simpson.

Bill Pavelic, the lead investigator for Simpson's defense team during his criminal trial for the murders of Nicole and Ron Goldman, says: "I know for a fact that Nicole Brown Simpson was a victim of stalking and that her cars and residence had been wiretapped."

Pavelic, a 19-year veteran of the LAPD, believes Simpson hired Pellicano to do eavesdropping based, in part, on similarities to the bugging devices he says Pellicano planted at Michael Jackson 's Neverland Ranch.

Pellicano is currently in prison for illegal wiretapping.

"Cops knew about Pellicano's wiretapping of Nicole," alleges Pavelic, who will tell more in his book, "Guilty of Incompetence." "Had Nicole not been murdered, his wiretapping would have been exposed long ago." (more)

Spybuster's Tip #104 - $20. Unbuggable Phone

If this were art, it would be labeled "retro irony."

A land-line telephone that can be put in a paper envelope and sent to someone by snail-mail? There would be knowing nods, winks and guffaws all over the gallery.

But British industrial-design firm Priestman Goode isn't kidding. Its Post A Phone is meant as a "failsafe backup" when more sophisticated wireless technology goes off-line. (more)

Cheap enough to keep a spare one in your purse or jacket pocket. Thin enough so bugs can't be installed or internal wiring compromised. Just find a random analog line jack, plug in and make a 'safe' call.

In a work environment, finding an analog jack is usually just a matter of unplugging a fax machine or speakerphone unit.

At home, find your 'demarc' junction box, unplug the household wiring and plug this phone directly into the outside wiring - thus bypassing any internal wiretaps or recording devices!

No word on where you can actually buy a 'Post A Phone' yet. We will keep you 'posted'. Disposable phones are nothing new, however. We have reported on them before.

SpyCam Story #393 - Teddy Bear Cam

UK - A man obsessed with a teenage girl gave her a teddy bear with a tiny camera in its eye so he could spy on her.

John Howell also gave her a pen fitted with a camera to relay images to a video machine where he could watch the girl, Lincoln Crown Court heard. His obsession was so great that he also installed a software program on her computer which allowed him to read all her e-mails.

The 43-year-old Inland Revenue worker, was caught after the 13-year-old girl’s father spotted something was wrong with the teddy and called police. Detectives seized Howell’s laptop and briefcase full of surveillance equipment from his home in Market Deeping. (more)

Spybuster's Tip #103 - Spot the Spy

Joe Navarro is an ex-FBI agent. His job was spotting spies. His weapon... he reads body language. These days, Joe writes and teaches poker players how to win.

He can help you spot deceit in your business as well.

Joe says...
"Poker players lie all the time. They pretend they are strong when they are weak or weak when they are strong. The truth is they can all be read. You can have a poker face, but I've yet to see someone with a poker body."

"When you are feeling good _ or have a monster hand _ your body will manifest what it feels. You get happy feet. Your feet begin to bounce up and down like a kid going to Disney World. We squint at things we don't like. ... The involuntary nonverbal mannerisms dictated by the brain will always betray the strength or weakness of a player's hand."

"If your boss asks at a meeting, `Who is not pulling their weight?', the shoulders will rise on those who are not confident. It's called `The Turtle Effect.' You are trying to hide your head inside your shoulders. On the contrary, a person whose fingertips meet like a church steeple with the thumb pointed up indicates a winning hand."

Want to know more?
Joe's website
A list of common spy personality traits.
Joe teaches at the World Series of Poker Academy


What Every BODY is Saying:
An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People
(due out in April, 2008)

Judge dismisses police dispatchers' wiretapping suit

IA - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by three Clinton County emergency dispatchers who alleged their private phone conversations made on a work phone line were illegally recorded.

Senior U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor ruled that the federal wiretapping law exempts law enforcement agencies that record phone calls as part of routine police practice. (more)

Eavesdropping - Sometimes its for data

Hackers stole millions of credit card numbers from discount retailer TJX Cos. by intercepting wireless transfers of customer information at two Miami-area Marshalls stores, according to an eight-month investigation by the Canadian government.

The probe, led by Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, faulted TJX for failing to upgrade its data encryption system by the time the electronic eavesdropping began in July 2005. The break-in ultimately gave hackers undetected access to TJX's central databases for a year and a half, exposing at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud. (more)

Provoked thoughts...
• What wireless technologies is your company dependent upon?
• Are you sure your voice and data are secure from eavesdropping?
• Do you conduct searches for eavesdropping devices?
• How much damage would eavesdropping create before you noticed?

Holiday Gift Idea #101 - Spy Clock

Spy Clock
Designed by Pieter Woudt

A convex glass mirror with sleek metal hands. Only time can sneak up on you now!

One AA-battery (not included).
Size: 12diam. x 2"d Item# 69573
Available at the MoMAstore.
$25.00 / $20.00 for members