Surveillance methods improve with GPS emerging technology

By: Adam H. Beasley - McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

Posted: 5/16/08

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-As a private investigator, Jim Bender has tracked everything from straying spouses to strung-out trust-fund babies somtimes following them for days at a time.

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.

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, Fla., 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 cell phone 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 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.