New gadgets from Fort Lauderdale company make spying easier

BY ADAM H. BEASLEY

The Miami Herald

But thanks to an innovative GPS device the size of a matchbox, he can now stake out a cheating husband without leaving his Fort Lauderdale office. Or, as he has done the last few weeks, help a major company figure out who is draining the diesel fuel from its big rigs.

Technological advances have revolutionized the surveillance business, making devices smaller, cheaper and more effective than ever. And not just for professional snoops like Bender, but for everyday people.

"Anybody can be a spy now," said Todd Myers, president of Computer Sights, a computer support and surveillance supply store in Fort Lauderdale.

All it takes is a few hundred dollars, an Internet connection, and a little curiosity.

Think that's just a smoke detector? Look a little closer and you'll see a camera's lens. Those flood lights hanging from the ceiling? They're more illuminating than you think.

For PIs like Bender, the improved equipment has led to improved service. However, it's also given Peeping Toms a new way to gawk.

Spencer Krumholz, marketing director of World Imports International in Pompano Beach, faces a lawsuit from two of the company's employees.

His offense? He placed a hidden camera in the ceiling of the women's bathroom, according to court records.

Last year, a Connecticut man wired a shampoo bottle with a tiny camera so he could watch his two female roommates as they showered, according to police. Someone discovered the camera, and Steven Thibodeau was arrested on voyeurism charges.

He later admitted to the crime and received probation. A judge ordered Thibodeau to stay away from cameras and computers.

For the most part, however, the equipment is used by people to protect their interests.

A few months back, Myers sold a well-tailored businessman who suspected his wife was cheating on him a $300 WiLife digital clock, equipped with a spy camera. The man put the clock on his bedside nightstand, and the images it captured were sent, through the power lines, to a computer.

The executive set up the system to alert him, via text message, if there was movement in the master bedroom while he was at work.

The next day, his cellphone went off. With just a few clicks of his office computer, he pulled up the video.

There was his wife and another man "making whoopie" on the couple's bed, Myers said.

The husband copied the feed and sent it off to his attorney, who drew up the divorce papers. The video saved the man millions in alimony, he later told Myers.

"I'd much rather have given it to him for free and taken a percentage of his savings," Myers said.

Bender spent the last few weeks in central Florida, on assignment for a prominent Florida-based distribution company.

The owner called him in because of a recurring problem with a 70-gallon diesel tractor trailer. It would leave the facility at night with a full tank, and return just three-quarters full - despite only a handful of miles difference on the odometer. At $4.20 or so a gallon, diesel is a valuable commodity, and the owner didn't like getting ripped off. So, he brought in Bender to sort out who was stealing from the company, and who was buying the stolen fuel.

In the past, such stakeouts could take hundreds of hours. Now, it's as easy as hiding the GPS device in the truck's wheel well and waiting for it to return.

"The tracking devices that they had a year ago, those things were the size of a loaf of bread," said Bender, who has also used the device to track the daughter of a prominent South Florida family to a known crack houses.

"This was a huge step forward in making it affordable and more covert. I've gotten three or four new clients based on this technology in the last few weeks."

Sharron Lambert just wanted to know the truth about her husband.

The Birmingham, Ala., woman suspected he was cheating on her a few years back, so she dropped a GPS device in his car.

One day, when he thought she was at work, Lambert tracked her husband down, finding him in the arms of his mistress.

"By the time I caught him, I already suspected the worst," Lambert said. "All the emotional stuff was already there. Now I could do whatever I need to do about it."

It was a liberating experience. So much so, Lambert started her own surveillance supply business and became known as the "Gadget Lady."

She sells GPS devices, audio and video recorders, caller ID scramblers and computer keystroke monitoring software.

"I sell things you would use to obtain the truth," Lambert said.

While surveillance technology has exploded, the laws controlling it have mostly remained the same.

Covert video is fine, but it is still illegal to make an audio recording of any conversation without both parties giving consent.

In his North Federal Highway shop, Myers distributes copies of the Florida statute to customers, and has at least once kicked out people who asked him to help them break the law. And of course, certain acts - like voyeurism - are illegal, regardless of the technology.

In late 2006, Davie police arrested a man who they say used a camera hidden in a hat to peek up women's skirts in Kmart.

Jon Fletcher was charged with voyeurism, a misdemeanor. He awaits trial.