Search for Termites Turns Up Defectors’ Videotape in House

A termite inspector checking the attic of a home abandoned by a family that defected to the Soviet Union last year discovered a home-made videotape titled “The Way We Were” that explained their abrupt flight.

Lauren and Arnold Lockshin and their three children, Jenny, Jeffrey and Michael, flew to the Soviet Union on Oct. 8, 1986, and sought asylum, saying they were being persecuted in the United States for their communist beliefs.

The Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that inspector Larry Busby, while checking for termites, found the videotape tucked beneath insulation in the attic of their former southwest Houston home. It was to be turned over to the FBI, the paper said.

On the tape--which repeated much of what the family has since said in interviews--the Lockshins said life in the United States had become a continuing battle. “The psychological warfare forces are powerful,” Lockshin said on the tape. “We are able to withstand them better because we understand them.”

While seeking political asylum from the Soviets, Lockshin said mysterious men had followed him and other family members, that the family had received peculiar telephone calls and his children were subject to harassment from other children.