Someone spying? So are the teddy bear and the potted plant

See the teddy bear on the shelf? Well, he sees you too. “Right here on the camera, behind the left eye.” said Marvin Badler, owner of The Spy Mart, a Monmouth County company dedicated to the proposition that what you don’t know can hurt you and what you know can protect you from being caught off guard.

In here is a wireless camera transmitter. Mr. Badler said, holding the teddy bear in his arms and pointing to his furry little head. “It can send a signal up to 300 feet away, so you don’t even need a cable to connect it to a VCR.

Mr. Badler has been a licensed private investigator since 1961 and a former chief investigator for the New York City Department of Correction, he was demonstrating some of the items he sells in The Spy Mart showroom.

“Look at that crash over there.” Mr. Badler said, pointing in the direction of an ordinary-looking potted plant. “There’s a camera in the pot. We built it last week. I was shopping with my wife and saw the pot and got the idea.”

Mr. Badler’s business is the answer to a challenge: how do you find out what someone is doing without first finding out what you are doing?

“Most of my clients are law enforcement types.” Mr. Badler said, referring to the police, private detectives and investigating prosecutors. Investigators who come to avail themselves of the latest in clandestine surveillance technology. But we also have a lot of people from the private sector and business people who come because they want to record their own phone conversation or because they are afraid that their business will be hacked.”

paramilitary atmosphere

The Spy Mart, which Badler opened about two years ago, is on the second floor of an office building in Marlboro, New Jersey. Mr. Badler, a tall, portly man with a fondness for 10-gallon hats, also runs his private investigation and security business from the location. The atmosphere is decidedly paramilitary, with a secretary and an assistant calling Badler “sir” in brief formal exchanges.

He instructed the secretary to call him at a phone above one of the glass cabinets that line the showroom walls. The phone began to ring and Mr. Badler picked up the receiver. “This is a prototype.” he said, telling his assistant to pick up an extension in another room. A red light on the phone blinked. “See? The phone went dead.” Mr. Badler said he was holding the handset for a visitor to verify that the phone was completely dead. “The light comes on and the phone automatically disconnects the conversation.”

He intends to market the new phone to other spy shops across the country. The price? Around $750.00. Many of the gadgets in The Spy Mart’s showroom, including the phone that turns off, are items Badler himself designed and then built with components available at any well-stocked electronics store.

“This is a microphone in a button.” he said to her, holding out for inspection what appeared to be, well, a button with a wire attached to it. “You can put it in a part of your shirt and connect it to any recorder.” he said. “It’s battery operated and you can change the actual button to match the buttons on your shirt.”

He then showed me a pen that he said has a small microphone inside. Even after close inspection, nothing about the pen seemed unusual. “The microphone is behind that hole,” she said, indicating a period-sized pause at the end of this sentence. “It’s also super sensitive,” she said, saying the tiny microphone is about 10 times more sensitive than the microphones built into microcassette recorders now on the market.

“See the calculator?” she said, pointing to a credit card-sized calculator.

“That’s a transmitter. But it’s not for public use, just for law enforcement. It’s not FCC approved.”

Mr. Badler’s clandestine spy devices fall into two general types for public use: wired, like the button-down microphone that plugs into a microcassette recorder, and wireless, like the calculator that transmits to a radio receiver. FM at some distance.

behind the picture frame

Some of the wireless transmitters, like the one that replaces an ordinary electrical wall socket, can transmit up to half a mile away, drawing power from the house current. Others, which use tiny batteries for power and are about the size of a sugar cube, transmit a shorter distance but are useful for surreptitiously placing in vases, behind picture frames, and under tables and other furniture.

“Again,” Badler said, “these are for law enforcement, not for public use. It’s illegal to record audio unless you’re part of the conversation.”

But if that’s the case, who could use the teddy bear’s camera with a video camera for a brain? “Anyone,” replied Mr. Badler. It is not illegal to record on video.”

In fact, he said, the teddy bear was designed for clients who wanted to be able to keep track of how a child’s babysitter treated him when the parents weren’t home. The teddy bear was placed on a high shelf in the child’s room and connected to a locked video recorder in the parent’s room. The cost? “About $1,000.00, not including the VCR.” said Mr. Badler. “And there are ways we can make them work in total darkness.” Mr. Badler pointed to what looked like a clock hanging on the wall. He directed his visitor to look at the video monitor just below the clock. On the screen was an image of a confused reporter looking at himself looking at a video monitor. “Now look at this,” Mr. Badler said, turning off the office lights. The image on the video monitor dimmed slightly but remained clear and sharp. “All we do is stick in a small source of infrared light, we can hide it anywhere in the room, and it will bounce back and light up the room as if it were daylight.”

A regular customer of The Spy Mart, a private investigator who declined to give his name, described another product that makes use of infrared light. “I bought infrared filters for my car’s headlights.” the investigator said, explaining that he used the filters while monitoring wandering spouses for divorce clients. “I sit in my car with a video camera, point the lights at the house or motel, and wait. The infrared filters light up the place as if it were daylight. I can see them, but they can’t see me.”

The investigator said that The Spy Mart was more than a toy store for real-life Sam Spades and amateur spies.

Marvin doesn’t just sell you stuff and send you out the door,” the man said. “He tells you how to use what you buy. He gives suggestions. Tell him what you want to do and he’ll figure out how to do it.”

And for those new to the espionage and counterintelligence business, Mr. Badler also offers a small library of arcane books with titles like “How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found.” “Revenge: The Complete Book of Dirty Tricks,” “How the Underdog Gets Justice,” and “Methods of Disguise.”

Although The Spy Mart caters to law enforcement officials, Badler said, a growing segment of his business involves business executives and managers concerned about employee theft and corporate espionage.

“We have a lot of small businesses that install hidden video systems,” he said, adding that it is illegal to install such equipment in areas where people have a right to expect privacy, such as dressing rooms and bathrooms.

Wiretapping Concerns

“We also sell a lot of systems to people who think that their businesses or household items that they’ve displayed in their offices are being hacked or intercepted by the competition,” he said. “And we help people who want to record their phone conversation. Many insurance brokers are now recording the client’s conversation, which is legal.”

Although the market for surveillance devices for law enforcement never seems to dry up, he said, the market among business customers follows the evolution of the economy.

“When things are bad for business, then business is good for me.” said Mr. Badler. “When the economy is bad, people are stealing more and there is a reduction in advertising.”

One of the last items he showed his visitor was his personal favorite. “This is a bug detector,” he said, opening a box containing a small electronic control panel. He took a small wand with a wire attached to it from the box and pointed the wand at the calculator, which was actually a hidden transmitter and was supposed to be virtually undetectable. The bug detector blinked and beeped and gave an electronic warning.

“It’s one of my most popular items,” he said.

Badler is now on the web: http://www.thespymart.com and http://www.implexsecurityproducts.com

NEW YORK TIME, JANUARY 30, 1994