Australian CEOs and celebrities hire ‘bug detector’ to find spies in their homes

An Aussie private eye has revealed how he detected a spy camera inside a bathroom that had been set up to film a woman showering. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

They are hidden everywhere – behind paintings on office walls, in ceilings and desk drawers, in bathroom light fittings, and even wired into the boots of cars.

And it is Alan Earl’s job to find them – and who put them there.

Mr Earl is known as the “Bug Detector” and thanks to Covid-19 and people working from home – business is booming.

The private investigator reveals in the Eye Spy podcast how he is now more frequently being asked to conduct counter surveillance measures at the homes of high profile CEOs and celebrities – “sweeping” their houses for spy cameras or listening bugs.

He said the threat of being listened to or tracked has exploded in the past few years with spy devices becoming much cheaper and easier to access.

“They come in all different sizes, disguises. There are devices you can get on eBay very, very cheaply – one looks like andworks as a USB charging cable,” Mr Earl said.

Alan Eark aka the Bug detector is busier than ever thanks to Covid-19 and people working from home. Picture: David Caird

“If you’re not looking for it, you will just look like a benign charging cable, but what you don’t realise to the naked eye is that it’s got a mobile phone SIM card in it.

“You can buy devices for less than $50. You can get devices that look like powerboards, you can get devices that look like smoke detectors or light fittings.

“There are creative devices, might just look like a little black box the size of a cigarette packet,” he said.

Listen to the latest episode of the Eye Spy podcast below:

For corporate “sweeps” for bugs, Mr Earl and his team do much of their work at night.

“If you have something worth selling, you have something worth stealing,” he said.

They need the cover of darkness so employees who might be an insider threat don’t know what they are up to. But while they use a lot of expensive equipment the most important tool he says is their eyes and a torch.

“When we’re going into offices at night time, there’s a lot of going up and down ladders, opening up ceiling tiles and having a look around with a torch and other equipment to see if there’s anything unusual.

Mr Alan “sweeping” an office for bugging devices. Picture: David Caird

“It’s important that work is undertaken at night. And there’s a few reasons. First of all, that could be what’s called the insider threat …. we don’t want to alert that potential insider, because they could quite easily remove the device that we’re looking for,” he said

In one case Mr Earl discovered a spy camera inside a bathroom light fitting that had been set up to film a woman showering, and in an unrelated matter he found an iPhone wired into the boot of a woman’s car.

Bugs can be planted anywhere including smoke detectors. Picture: Supplied

They can also be found in roof cavities. Picture: Supplied

“It was hidden in a pocket in the in the boot of a car, it was wired into the mains via a five volt battery charger,” he said.

“The perpetrator wasn’t using the phone to listen to any conversations. They were using the find my iPhone functionality.

“So basically tracking the position of the car to you to find out where his wife was.”

Mr Earl has helped domestic violence support groups sweeping the properties and cars of women who have been the victims of stalking.

“These devices are very cheap and easy to acquire. So we will check over the vehicle to see if there’s anything inside or outside the vehicle. Sometimes we remove it, sometimes we don’t depending on the situation.

“The reason why we may not remove it is … if there are grounds for law enforcement to be involved.”

Mr Earl warns people if you are not looking for a threat you won’t know it is there. And if there really is a threat you won’tknow till it is” too late”.

When he turns up for on assignment he brings with him an assortment of very expensive equipment in large metal cases.

“It is fun to hear the client’s reaction. They usually say, wow, this is just like a scene from James Bond or Jason Bourne.”

Originally published as Australian CEOs and celebrities hire ‘bug detector’ to find spies in their homes