Spy Stores Turn Regular Joes to James Bond

If you ever dreamed of being James Bond, you’ll be glad to know that the San Fernando Valley has its very own “Q.”

Located behind an alarm-equipped lobby, sentry cameras and a bullet-resistant glass door is the unassuming suite housing the Privacy Connection, one of several “spy shops” in Southern California. Owner Rick Hornwood and General Manager Phil Wolvek have been selling gadgets out of this store for 17 years to enable private citizens, corporations and law enforcement agencies to snoop and pry, bug and debug.

“We’re not a toy store,” says Wolvek. “We’re the real thing.” The shop offers fingerprint kits, stun guns, bug-detectors, cameras and other devices that are legal to sell and own, though whether they are used legally often depends on the buyer.

In his office, Wolvek clicks a pen lying on his desk and a wall of monitors blinks into life, showing how well-observed the room is. No cameras are visible--but that’s just the point.

“We specialize in cameras--all kinds of cameras,” Wolvek said. That includes cameras stuffed into teddy bears, hidden in wristwatches, ties, caps, alarm clocks, coffee makers and just about anything else. Wolvek’s firm customizes these clandestine cameras to fit any place a client requests and prices range from $250 to $1,700.

Wolvek recalled a jealous husband who wanted a weight-trigger installed in his bed. “He knew his wife weighed 125 pounds, so whenever there was more than 130 pounds on the bed, the camera would turn on,” he said.

In recent years, suspicious parents have used the cameras to monitor baby-sitters and nannies--sometimes yielding frightening results. Last spring, a nanny in Ventura County was convicted of beating a 17-month-old boy after a camera caught her hitting the boy in the head as he ate.

Other local spy shops include SPI-Over The Counter Spy Shop in Thousand Oaks and the Counter Spy Shop of Mayfair in Beverly Hills, which began in London in 1959, selling spook gear to Cold Warriors, the company says.

“When people come into our store they want one of two things--they want to protect their privacy, or they want to invade someone’s privacy,” said Mike Kalina, West Coast manager of the Counter Spy Shop of Mayfair.

Strict laws prohibit the sale of “bugs,” wireless covert listening devices, to the public. But Counter Spy and its affiliate CCS Communication Control do sell the devices to law enforcement agencies, Kalina said. The spy shop does sell the public devices that are not legally considered bugs, such as super-sensitive microphones that pick up distant conversations.

Whether that’s a good idea is a subject of debate. Some 1st Amendment experts worry that the proliferation of surveillance equipment may erode privacy laws.

Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer and a board member of the ACLU of Southern California said the strongest laws protecting an individual’s privacy have traditionally been directed at controlling government agencies, but recent statutes have addressed the democratization of surveillance. Rohde said he is concerned that the public is often unaware that they are being watched by cameras in the stores they frequent and the businesses for which they work.

“We must not become a society in which, literally, our every movement is the subject of surveillance and recording equipment,” he said. “In the name of security we are slowly giving up our privacy rights.”