Who doesn’t like a good spy story?
They come in all types: action, true, fiction, comedy, noir, etc. The weird but true spy stories are often overlooked, but not here.
Weird Spy Story #1 
Weird bugging happens everywhere. Three employees were sentenced to 20 months jail for bugging their boss for a raise. It happened in China. “No wonder,” you say. Hear me out. They really bugged him, as in electronic surveillance. They used a hidden camera to blackmail him. Now it makes sense.
Weird Spy Story #2
From a government investigation report… ”Employee hid a recording device in supervisor’s office. In addition, without authorization, Employee made copies of supervisor’s negative comments about Employee that Employee located by conducting an unauthorized search of the supervisor’s office and briefcase. Employee provided the notes to lawyer in support of lawsuit against supervisor. Finally, Employee lied to investigators during the course of the administrative inquiry.”
This case came from the files of the FBI.
Why?
A. It was their employee.
Weird Spy Story #3
Management-labor eavesdropping works both ways…
In San Francisco, an International longshore and warehouse union local reported their employer, “conducted secret surveillance, eavesdropping and snooping and listening in on confidential communications between and among union representatives, shop stewards and members concerning ongoing contract negotiations, bargaining strategies and labor-management issues.”
Weird Spy Story #4
Even cops have their problems. A former Nashville police officer/union organizer was indicted on federal charges in connection with the break-in and illegal surveillance of a Fraternal Order of Police youth camp. Investigators alleged the hidden cameras were placed at the camp in an effort to discredit the FOP by catching officers engaged in some type of misconduct.
Weird Spy Story #5
Actual Craig’s List ad…
Can you be loyal to the boss? Can you spy on the other employees?
Well, not literally spy, but you need to active(ly) keep a record of all employee work activity and report to the boss and be loyal to the boss only. If you are capable of keeping track of the other workers and reporting the details of their tardiness, or punctuality etc. then do apply. Anyone applying needs to have a very professional, well groomed appearance, since they will be the face of the office. Pics are not required to apply but they do help show if the candidate has the organizational skills to be well put together.
Weird Spy Story #6
Last month, a Virginia jury awarded $500,000 to a man who inadvertently recorded an anesthesiologist trashing him as he lay unconscious during a colonoscopy, the Washington Post reported. The man had activated the recorder on his smartphone to capture his doctor’s instructions for his discharge but forgot to turn it off. He was stunned after the procedure to hear the anesthesiologist say she wanted to punch him in the face, suggest that he had syphilis and call him a “retard,” according to the newspaper.
Weird Spy Story #7
Taiwan – Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) said yesterday that his opponent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) should drop out of the election if police are not able to confirm the existence of the alleged eavesdropping devices that Ko’s election team claimed they discovered connected to their office phone; Lien added that Ko is only trying to divert attention away from his recent human organ transaction scandal. (more)
Weird Spy Story #8
Soldiers from Israel’s elite wire-tapping unit are refusing to spy on Palestinians in a rebuke to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More than 40 former soldiers and current army reservists have signed a letter refusing future service in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) military intelligence wing, known as Unit 8200. Unit 8200 is often compared to the United States National Security Agency. It uses sophisticated technology to monitor the lives of Palestinians, gathering information which is then used by Israel’s military. It also carries out surveillance overseas.
Weird Spy Story #9
Spycamer’s day job… runs business that installs security cameras.
Baltimore County police say they are analyzing electronic items seized from the home of a man charged with secretly recording people in a bathroom at White Marsh Mall. The suspect, is general manager of a company that provides technology services including security camera installation, police said. He is accused of placing a small camera, pointed toward a toilet, in the family bathroom near the mall’s food court. The camera recorded 11 people, both children and adults, according to a police spokeswoman.
Weird Spy Story #10
Former VW employee under investigation for corporate espionage found dead in burned-out car…was investigated by the police on suspicion of violating business secrets. more
Weird Spy Story # 11
In ‘weirdest’ case, police say man spent hours near door of home in Salinas… they said spent hours licking the button on an intercom speaker at a home in Salinas, CA. (Caught on the door’s CCTV camera.) more
Weird Spy Story #12
The staff of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) ran over a law enforcement officer and caused a car accident after installation of wiretapping in the building of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). Head of SAPO Nazar Kholodnytsky claimed this at the briefing. more
Weird Spy Story #13
This homeless dog living in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, was caught on the security cameras of “Infinity” bookstore. After a random man from the street returned a book that had been missing from the store, the staff decided to playback the CCTV video to see what really happened. Turns out, the dog that had been sleeping in front of their entrance for a while, but had never been caught entering the store, finally made his move. He entered the bookstore completely unnoticed and headed right to the shelves as if he was a normal customer. This smart animal casually grabbed the book that he wanted and rushed out from the store. more
Weird Spy Story #14
Apotex Inc., the generic-drug giant founded by murdered billionaire Barry Sherman, has been waging a year-long court battle against an ex-employee who was fired for allegedly stealing millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical trade secrets from a laboratory computer—in the hopes of launching a rival company in his native Pakistan… Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey Sherman, 70, were discovered strangled inside their North York mansion the victims of what police have labeled a “targeted” double homicide. more
Weird Spy Story # 15
This famous Banksy artwork showing “snooping” in Cheltenham has been removed.
Spy Booth depicts three 1950s-style agents, wearing brown trench coats and trilby hats, using devices to tap into conversations at a telephone box. more
Weird Spy Story #16
Spycam Lawsuit: Female Oil Rig Worker Sues for $1 Million… It looked like a normal clothing hook — small and unsuspecting, mounted on the back door of her sleeping quarters on the Transocean Deepwater oil rig. But to her, for some reason it just didn’t feel right…She dismissed the weird feeling and thought to herself, “Well, it must just be extra storage. Four days later, the hook was gone. more
Weird Spy Story #17
Long distance listening: A special layer of ocean makes eavesdropping easier — Maurice Ewing and a team of American scientists… believed there may be a layer in the ocean where a combination of pressure and temperature create a narrow channel where certain low-frequency sounds would travel long distances…Using an underwater microphone called a hydrophone, a second boat stationed 900 miles away successfully detected the sounds. Subsequent tests picked up the signal at a distance of 3,000 miles. more
Weird Spy Story #18
Man in trunk spying on car passengers… Two men were arrested Monday after police say they were found with drugs while trying to spy on someone else. …police pulled Edguardo Mendez, 24, of Newark, over at 2:54 a.m. Monday while he was driving with a passenger… During the stop, officers found that another man was hiding in the car’s trunk…Police did not immediately respond to questions about the men’s relationship to the passenger, or why the two were trying to spy. more
Weird Spy Story #19
After 50 Years, Charlie is Finally Employed — The US military has been developing a robotic tuna that can infiltrate enemy territory. The spy fish, which is made to look like a bluefin tuna, weighs a hundred pounds and is 5ft long. more
Weird Spy Story #20
It’s a lone white wooden building that stands with its back to the windswept shore of the Sandy Hook Bay in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown, NJ. Its official name is the Seabrook-Wilson Homestead, but most people know it much better as The Spy House. Though its true history belies many of the legends that have circulated for years about this old property, that has not dissuaded some believers in the paranormal from dubbing it “the most haunted house in America.” (more)
Weird Spy Story #21
Peek-I – a tiny spy gadget that helps you take pictures discreetly… Peek-I – Easily attaches’ magnetically to the camera of your mobile device. It works as a periscope, reflecting the image at a 90 degree angle. Is so tiny, that it’s hard to notice it is on your device at all. And no one will ever know you were the ONE who took THAT picture or film THAT video!!! So do you feel like James Bond yet? more Apparently, it had issues, but no worries a less elegant one is here.
Weird Spy Stories #22
LA – Gynecologist documents work too well. 186 counts of video voyeurism.
NY – Urologist arrested for upskirting.
CA – Plastic surgeon for celebrities with spycam in dressing room.
Weird Spy Story #23
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has released a series of recruitment videos onto YouTube, videos that feature testimonials from real-life spies. The clips were posted last week, but released without any publicity… In the clips, each of which lasts a minute or two, CSIS intelligence officers are shown striding purposefully to urgent (but fictional) assignments, as orchestral music plays and time-lapse video speeds up street scenes. (more)
Weird Spy Story #24
CO – A man has been dubbed the “Porta-Potty Peeper” after he hid in the tank of a portable toilet.
“I was at the yoga festival, doing a little bit of yoga, and I’m just seeing all these goddesses,” Luke Chrisco, who said he is a voyeur and not a rapist, told FOX31 Denver. “It seems crazy, but I just felt like I was being blessed by their energy…” Police believe Chrisco has spied on at least 200 women in Boulder and hundreds more across the US and Europe. (more)
Weird Spy Story #25
UK – “To celebrate the book release of Private London by James Patterson, we have the ultimate gadget package up for grabs. 
Our prize includes a state-of-the-art Nokia mobile handset worth £595, which records all messages and calls with a device which can be listened to from another phone, a Sony digital radio which has a surveillance camera and sound recorder, a keyboard with bugging device, a voice recorder disguised as a USB stick and a mains adapter with a bugging device that can listen to the surrounding sound in room – which can be listened to live from anywhere in the world. This is the ultimate spy package for any budding investigator, and has all the gadgets they need to mimic their spy idols such as Dan Carter in Private London. (N.B. The competition is over.)
Weird Spy Story #26
The New York University professor who implanted a camera in the back of his head was prepared for privacy-related objections by the school and his pupils. What he didn’t anticipate was resistance from a more intimate source: his own body. Last week, Wafaa Bilal removed part of the device, saying his body had rejected it despite antibiotics and steroid treatments, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education. …intends to replace the camera with a lighter model. more | original story
Weird Spy Story #27
Australia – A bull shark under surveillance left scientists scratching their heads after it seemed to begin travelling down a major roadway in New South Wales. Marine biologists noticed the predator – or at least its tag – was moving along the Princes Highway between Shellharbour and Wollongong, having apparently quit the sea at Shell Cove on Wednesday morning. Department of Primary Industries scientist Amy Smoothey said the tag, which had been picked up by an environmentally conscious beachgoer, had been returned.
Weird Spy Story #28
UK – A Royal Navy submarine and a bugged Scottish farmhouse were used to try to catch the killers of Stephen Lawrence, it has emerged. The elaborate surveillance operation was set up in 1999 in an attempt to gather evidence from five men accused of the teenager’s murder, as they enjoyed a two-week break after giving a high-profile TV interview… But the Daily Mail yesterday revealed how, before they arrived, police had planted hidden microphones in the house, in the Perthshire village of Forteviot. The submarine, which took up position off Dundee, sent the signal back to London… The Met rigged up the whole venue with hidden listening devices even placing them in golf buggies the suspects rode on in the quaint village of Forteviot. They relayed their signal to a helicopter circling nearby which passed it onto the sub which in turn fired it down to detectives in Scotland Yard. Even the friendly minibus driver who showed them the sights during their 15-day Highlands stay was an undercover police officer, reports the Mail. One source said: “It was pure James Bond. It was run like a big anti-terror operation. The team had every piece of kit you had ever heard of.” more
Weird Spy Story #29
(Someone, somewhere, is working on it right now. We’ll keep your posted.)
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Murray Associates is an independent security consulting firm, providing eavesdropping detection and counterespionage services to business, government and at-risk individuals.
Headquartered in the New York metropolitan area, Murray Associates teams can assist you quickly anywhere in the United States and internationally.
EXTRAS:
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