How to tell if landlord is using spycameras?
How can I tell if he has a spycamera or something in my condo?
All the walls are the regular flat smooth surface, but my bathroom and bedroom ceilings have a rough textured type of paint so it would be hard to see any tiny holes there. I'm on the top floor, so the roof is the only thing over me, and I live in a building with five other tenants.
My lease doesn't end for another 9 months, I cant afford to move, and don't have anyone to stay with. Is there something I could buy to detect cameras?
Answers:
go to home depot or Lowe's and look for infrared laser glasses. if the cameras are set for night vision you can see them easy in a dark room. or borrow a friends video camera set it to night vision and look for a bright light in a dark room.
Other answers:
check by experts
check by experts
try asking a private investigator they know these things.
if you can afford to buy bug or camera detecting equipment, i would hire a local private investigator to check you place out. he could also check to see if you landlord has a history of peeping tomism or anything else. what you are saying seems like either you are right or you are very paranoid. either way, you would be doing yourself a huge favor by looking into this, even if it is just to quelch your paranoia. $50-$200 could get you what you want from a P.I.
I personally would go running around with a tube or toothpaste and covering all the holes.
Fix your window coverings so nothing shows.
CHANGE THE LOCKS. He's more than likely wandering through your house when you're not there.
Contact the police so they have a record of your concerns. They won't be able to do anything, but if something happens in the future... Tell your friends.
Contact a specialist - PI, a cop friend, etc to help you find them.
The wiring for them could be almost anywhere... baseboards are common. Also - the mirrors around your place may be one way glass.
Above all - trust your hunches.
I used to work in an old hotel that had chase ways (a narrow passage between rooms for plumbing and such to run) one of the tricks Id hear old timers taliking about would to scratch tiny holes in mirrors or pictures from the back side for peeop holes so you could check behind anything hanging on the walls also think about whwre you go these activities and any good "veiwing spots" may be plamts etc and if you think it may be a pin hole in the walls paint them the same color that should cover the hole and muck up the lens
Most likely scenario:
If he has a key to your apartment, like most landlords have, he could be breaking and entering (breaking & entering because he has no official reason to be there and it is without your consent) while you are away. Whatever you do at your apartment to relax will be usually haphazardly placed in the most obvious places. I'm certain that you have a number of interests, so it will be easy to pinpoint at least some of those just by walking through.
Second most likely scenario:
He eavesdrops on your phone conversations and hears what you are interested in doing that evening. He can listen through unfortified places in the walls or roof, or, less likely, your phone line is easily tapped because of some wiring incident with a past tenant, etc.
Third:
There is a peephole in your apartment.
Least likely:
He has installed surveillance cameras in your apartment.
I have a feeling that it is harmless, but nonetheless irritating to you because you obviously value your privacy.
Advice:
Begin by talking to some tenants who have lived in the building for the longest time. Without telling them your predicament until you deem it's okay to do so (so that they give you an automatic answer, and not taylor their answers in any way), ask the following questions:
1. What people have lived in your apartment before you? Did any of those people have anything special done to their phone line? Did they have any special phone needs?
2. Is the telephone system (wiring) in the building very outdated (if the building is older)? Are there any peculiarities about all the phones in the building, those that are perhaps irritating to some tenants? Have they had, or have they heard anyone else in the building have, irritating cross connections in the middle of their phone conversations? (This will tell you of any possibility of weakness in the phone wiring, which someone as knowledgeable about the building as a landlord could take advantage of.
3. Ask about the construction of the building -- is it safe; are here any thin walls, are there any add ons to the original design (which could have weaker walls)? Can they easily hear their nexr door neighbors through the walls sometimes (Oh, how irritating it is!)? Which tenants are in the apartments adjacent to you?
4. When was the building reroofed last? Have they heard any complaints about leaks in the roof or other such problems, especially where the landlord keeps promising to have it fixed? Wouldn't it be wonderful to set up a patio for all the tenants on top of the building? (Get the seasoned tenants' reactions to this; it will tell tou about the condition of the roof and if anyone could just casually walk around there.)
5. Do they know if the landlord casually does repairs while the tenants are gone, so that he doesn't disturb anyone? (This is probably the quintessential question.)
6. To find out if your landlord enters your apartment while you are away, set him up as follows (for information purposes only). If this is a yes, it probably precludes the auditory and peephole scenarios. Borrow a few items from a friend that are hobby/interest related (similar to painting or taebo), but that you yourself have never taken an interest in. At night, when you are certain your landlord is asleep, place those items as you place your othe items in a haphazard easily viewable way that would give anyone an impression that you have been working on those hobbies. Do not mention them in your apartment, so that if he is listening in, he would never know about them. Also, don't do them or walk near those objects or give them attention in any way while in the apartment. This way if he is watching you DO something, he will not see you doing it. Make sure the objects are lying flat, or just plainly cannot be seen unless a person were to walk through, in which case they would visually scream at him. Again, do this at night IN THE DARK. You may have to do it more than once with different hobbies/interests until he bites the hook.
7. If you think it would resolve the problem, ask a seasoned neighbor straight forwardly if anyone else in the building has ever had a similar problem in the past.
I realize that these are a lot of questions, but you don't have to ask them all at once. When you chitchat by the mailbox or wherever, just casually ask a few of the questions at a time. If you can ask them all at once, then great! Do make sure that you ask the tenants who have lived in the building the longest though. Good luck!
P.S. Sorry for being so long winded. Happy to help!
if you go to radio shack i think they sell things that will like break a video transmission, might just make you feel safe, or better yet, set up your own cameras secretly inside your home, to see if he comes in during the day, to install or repair them?