Off The Hook
Off The Hook
Hollywood Explosions to Privacy Protections with Dave Hill
What if your favorite Hollywood films could teach you how to protect your privacy? Meet Dave Hill, a master of pyrotechnics and technical surveillance countermeasures, who's transitioned from creating spectacular movie explosions to safeguarding individuals and businesses from modern surveillance threats. With a portfolio that includes "The Exorcism in 2024," "Scream 2022," and "The Hunger Games," Dave's journey is an intriguing blend of Hollywood magic and cutting-edge security expertise. Listen as Dave shares behind-the-scenes stories and reveals how skills honed in the movie industry now help protect your privacy.
From mechanical gremlins on Netflix to the insidious threat of hidden cameras in homes, Dave sheds light on the innovative techniques used in modern surveillance and counter-surveillance. Discover how Privacy Sweepers, Dave's company, is leading the charge in helping people detect and thwart hidden surveillance devices. Whether it's tracking devices in personal disputes or malicious USB cables, we discuss the alarming prevalence of these threats and the innovative methods to counteract them. Our conversation is a deep dive into the world of technical surveillance countermeasures, offering practical advice and advanced tools for ensuring your security.
Ever wondered how to spot a hidden camera with your phone? Or how criminals use everyday devices like AirTags for nefarious purposes? We explore these topics and more, providing tips and tricks to help you stay vigilant in today's tech-savvy world. Learn how to identify suspicious objects, use simple tools like your phone's flashlight, and the importance of thorough, methodical searches. With expert insights from Dave Hill, this episode equips you with the knowledge to protect yourself from unwanted surveillance and maintain your privacy. Join us for a riveting discussion that blends Hollywood spectacle with real-world security expertise.
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When people are released from jail, they have the responsibility to appear in court, but some of these people choose to go on the run.
Speaker 2:They go back home to mommy.
Speaker 1:And that is when these guys come into the picture. So sit back and listen to the Off the Hook podcast with Chad and Rob.
Speaker 3:Very fine people on both sides.
Speaker 1:These are real stories, but the names have been changed.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody. This is Rob, this is Chad, and today we have a very special episode. We got Mr Dave Hill with us today, and Mr Dave Hill is an awesome guy. We just sat with him for the past 30-45 minutes talking with him. We got so much to go over, so we're going to give it up for Mr Dave Hill talking with him. We got so much to go over, so we're going to give it up for Mr Dave Hill, all right.
Speaker 2:So let me tell you how I met Mr Hill. I got a call. I got a good friend of mine who does all my tattoo work because I like my tattoos and I've known him for 25 years and he called me and said hey, I got a good friend of mine who's um, retiring from the movie industry and is going to be getting back into, uh, counter surveillance and, uh, he might be able to help you. And I was like cool. And then chad was like get him on. I'm like, all right, cool, so we're gonna get him on and chad, tell them about what this man has done, and then we're going to get into him shortly.
Speaker 4:Well, I speak for him too much here, but he specializes in pyrotechnics. He's a pyrotechnician, yes, sir, and special effects, yep, and done many movies, most recent the Exorcism in 2024. Scream 2022. The Highwaymen, the Conjuring, the Hunger Games. Done many movies, most recent the exorcism in 2024. Screen 2022, the highwaymen, the conjuring, the hunger games. Journey to that. That was when the rock was here. I saw him at gold's used to work out there, uh, eastbound, and down uh one tree hill, dawson's creek, nightmare on Elm Street, and that was the third one and General Hospital, 86 through 93. Yep Very cool and many, many more. But those are just some highlights.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Hey, turn that thing off. I can hear that thing from here. I think We'll cut it back on shortly. So if you're listening to us and if you want to see us, go to our YouTube channel, off the Hook Podcast, and you'll see Mr Hill here. He's got some surveillance equipment, some very expensive stuff that he's going to show you, and so he's done all these movies and these TV shows and especially here, because we had One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek filmed here and we're in a Wilmington's big for that. So but now he's, you know, kind of retired and going back into the counter surveillance um industry with his company, uh, privacy sweepers, and we're just going to get a Dave and and let him go with it and we'll kind of freelancers thing.
Speaker 3:Oh well, it's nice to meet you. We've got to meet you both and, uh, sean spoke highly of you both, um, so, basically, um, what I deal with is I deal with, uh, technical surveillance countermeasures. I uh help people individuals and businesses deal with their privacy issues. As we all know, nowadays, you hear in the news all the time about people finding cameras in their air and BBs bathrooms. You know they're finding air tags and stuff that they're on their cars, you know.
Speaker 2:So I just want to be able to help people you know deal with their privacy issues. Feel safe, you know, as bondsmen and private investigators, to have somebody like this individual because you know he's licensed and he's done this for a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I started in 2000 and 2005. I did a Fortune 500 company, so I did high end at one point and then now I'm getting into the low, the low to middle level at this point, unless they call me again but uh, but, uh, but that that's an extensive thing that I end. That's real high end.
Speaker 2:We'll be calling you.
Speaker 3:I promise that well, hopefully you won't have to wear you like down with the chinese or russians spine if it gets that far, I think I'm moving to the Caribbean.
Speaker 2:So, dave, start off, tell everybody what you were doing with the pyrotechnics, and then we're going to get into your surveillance.
Speaker 3:Well, I've been in the movie industry for going on 39 years now. This September Do special effects, which deals with everything from a leaf falling into scene to the a breeze on the trees to making snow, the hurricane season, making it rain and my specialty everyone in the business has some kind of specialty fabricators or mold makers. My specialty is pyrotechnics and I went through extensive training for theater and live stage shows to I did air shows where we use high explosives on their airplanes, um and um. I just got into doing that and I've done like I was telling you guys. I stopped counting explosions at 15 000 and that was 15 years ago because I got tired of counting them oh man, I bet you was fun.
Speaker 2:I bet you blew up some all kinds of shit.
Speaker 3:Well, you figure, that movie patriot that chad mentioned that alone. We did 7 000 explosions on that just over the course of filming. Wow, you know, and that was using everything from, uh you know, kinapak, um, ammonium nitrate explosives to primacor, to black powder, to flash powders, you know so let me say this say all you fugitives out there, if we come after you, we're gonna bring this guy with us he won't open the door rob.
Speaker 3:Hey, dave well, like I tell people, if you get in your car and you turn the key and it goes, click, click, click, get out that's awesome, so all right.
Speaker 2:So you were telling us about a story a little bit earlier with with at uh nightmare on elm street when you doing it, because you know chad and I are both, you know, old enough to remember watching it growing up, because freddie coo was awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was my favorite. And you know, on, uh, nightmare on street one and two would come out me and my buddy in new york we were making our own little home movies and we always loved that stuff because we loved the horror. And then I got to work on my first movie called Lady in White, up in western New York and when it finished there to go back out to LA to finish filming in the studios, I was unemployed and I drove out there and the first day they hired me back as a production assistant and I'm standing there in the office and the effects guys were talking on the phone and he turned around and looked at me and said we left you in New York and I said, oh yeah, he goes. What are you doing tomorrow? And I said nothing, they're just day playing on this and he goes. You want to work on nightmare on upstreet?
Speaker 3:Of course you know the answer at that point oh yeah, and so the next day I I went and worked on, started on nightmare on upstreet, three dream warriors and um, and, as I told you, it was the only time in my entire business I've been starstruck when I saw freddy krueger for the first time standing there and, uh, it was just an awesome experience to experience that with you know, kevinager, who was the makeup effects guy and seeing all that going on.
Speaker 3:And of course I think I was telling you back then the production companies would bring out wrap beer is what they called it and when they called wrap, at the end of the day and you were putting your gear away, they'd bring out a case of beer for everyone to drink a beer while you wrapped your gear away. They'd bring out a case of beer for everyone to drink a beer while you wrapped your gear. And one day we had a second unit shoot after the first unit shoot and Robert England, freddy Krueger, came up and snatched a case of beer and ran over to wait for us and by the time we got over there he'd already drank a six pack. So it was pretty interesting to see Freddy Krueger drunk.
Speaker 2:Was it hard to fall asleep on set?
Speaker 3:Well, he told you don't take a nap.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it, yeah, what about? So you mentioned the Patriot earlier. I know Chad's wife was a big fan of the Patriot and I was too. I mean, that was a great movie and you did a lot of explosions there. That was, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was in charge of the pyrotechnics on that and I ran second unit, which is primarily on a feature film. What it used to be is a first unit pretty much dealt with the production or the the performances of the actors, you know, getting their stuff done. They didn't spend a lot of extra time doing the shots, just of stuff blowing up or people getting shot or whatever car crashes. That was usually put on second unit. So there was just two units. The first unit dealt with the actors, the second unit dealt with the fun stuff and that's what I dealt with. You know, every day we'd show up we had amputees sitting around with missing arms and missing legs, makeup effects. People came to work with a bucket full of legs and arms. I had a magazine full of explosives. The director would say today I want to blow a guy's leg off. We'd take that guy, set him up with a fake leg on him and have a cannonball hit off. And we'd take that guy, set him up, put a fake leg on him and have a cannonball hit him.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, that's so cool. Let's go hook up some people today.
Speaker 3:Well, as my dad always said, you know, if you don't grow up, you'll never make nothing of your life. And I said who knew? There was a job where I could be a child.
Speaker 2:So what was your favorite film to work on?
Speaker 3:It child. So what was your favorite film to work on? It's hard to say, they're all different, you know. I mean, like patriot was fun just because of the, the, the intense amount of non-stop pyrotechnics. Uh, one of my favorite shows to ever work on was the conjuring. I mean, uh, um, uh, conspirator, because robert redford was the director oh yeah to be able to work with that man who was just amazing.
Speaker 3:I've heard he was very brilliant. He was amazing personally, professionally, and you know. So be able to work with some people like that. You know, I got to work with Stephen King several times and it's funny because him and Robert Redford are the only two people I ever met that have my weird sense of humor. It's funny because him and Robert Redford are the only two people I ever met that have my weird sense of humor. But you know, it's kind of hard to say what. You know. Like Scream 5 was a rarity Because in the business there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of eagles from different people, you know.
Speaker 3:So, like I tell people, the best part of the business is the people. The worst part of the business is the people. The worst part of the business is the people. If you have great people, it's an awesome experience. And, like Scream 5 was exactly that. Everybody, from the highest producer to every actor to the lowest person on the crew. We couldn't wait to come to work and we never wanted to go home. It was just fun, laughing all day long and you know just making a movie.
Speaker 2:Well, you know work. You know being able to work somewhere that you enjoy coming to means a lot, and that's why, like that's why me and Chad have done so well over the years, because we don't mind coming to work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and like the highwayman was a was a great experience because they wanted to make it as real, as authentic, as like the real story of Bonnie and Clyde. And when we actually did the killing of Bonnie and Clyde, the ambush, we did that at the exact spot where they were ambushed. They covered up the monuments with greens because the director wanted to do it authentically right there and I had to make the car exactly like the real one. I had to make every bullet head the exact same shape, location, every single thing, so it was 100% authentic.
Speaker 2:Man, I could pick your brain for hours. This is awesome man. I'm enjoying this man. I'm glad Sean gave me a call and gave me a number. We hooked up. This is great. So you're getting done with the movies industry now. Are you still working in it at all?
Speaker 3:I'm still going to work in it, but, like I said, I've been doing it 39 years and, like most businesses, you get to a point where you had enough and um, and I'm getting to the point where I want to back off on the everyday thing, because it's long hours, just like 12 to 14 hours a day. If it's raining outside, you're standing in it. If it's freezing outside, you're standing in it, you know so. So the I'm trying to back off to where I'll just now dabble in it. I'll go and be the pyrotechnician. Um, I do robotics and stuff, you know. So I'll come in and build a robot for you or a special gag.
Speaker 3:But sean said something about gremlins yeah, we built a gremlin for uh netflix, uh their tv show called obliterated, and it's a fully mechanical three-foot-tall gremlin. Oh can.
Speaker 2:I borrow that. I've got some people I want to go terrorize.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know, basically I just want to back off on the everyday stuff of having to go to work and sit in the nasty weather and sit out in the woods. And you know, I mean in Puerto Rico I was in the woods, in the jungle, surrounded by lizards, snakes, you know, and I don't want to do that anymore.
Speaker 2:Ah, yeah, we got you. So you're getting into this counter surveillance thing, which is awesome because it's going to help us out too in the future for our future work, which is awesome. I'm excited about that. So tell them a little bit about your company, Privacy Sweepers, and what you do.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, my company is called Privacy Sweepers. Obviously it's a misnomer. I guess that's the correct term because basically, when you're dealing, especially in the high end, you don't want the eavesdropper or the person spying on you to hear that, oh, you're bringing in a counter surveillance team because then they can deactivate their stuff. And since I do technical surveillance, countermeasures, sweeps of buildings and cars, I call it sweepers, so it sounds like a cleaning company. So it sounds like a cleaning company. So basically, like I say, we deal with now.
Speaker 3:I deal with trying to help small businesses, medium businesses, private individuals who are concerned about their personal safety. As you know, we all hear nowadays for personal safety. You hear people finding cameras and there's Airbnbs in their rental homes and and even in, you know, wherever you know and bathrooms and stuff. And you hear people, you know, dealing with trackers and stuff, especially with, um, uh, if you're going through a legal matter or or divorce or even a relationship breakup. You know people have been known to plant trackers. You know custody cases. You know someone will plant a camera on the other person to try to get information on them. You know, and you can buy that stuff online so cheap. You know there's thousands of them audio devices, cameras. You know, the cameras are on everything. You can't name one thing where there's not a camera hidden in them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were talking earlier and you were saying something about USBs and how they can just drop them. People are just dropping them in places and people are curious and stick it into their computer and end up with all their sensitive information gone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people aren't aware of that. A lot of people I've talked to recently they were just flabbergasted about it. You know, because you all people you hear all the time about computers and how people hackers get into your computers or your phones and they plant malware or ransomware or viruses or whatever, or they get in and take control of your and steal your passwords and all that. And you know that's high tech. You know. I mean personally myself. I don't know how to do that and I don't know if you guys know anybody who's that technical knowledgeable to be able to hack into your computer. And so if you wanted to eavesdrop on somebody, you can't do that. So there's all this low tech stuff that you can do. That's easy. And one thing that people don't realize is there is this big. It's a big thing.
Speaker 3:Even the FBI has put out a warning to everybody as what they call a malicious USB cable. And it's also malicious USB hard drives to the thumb drives that you get, usb hard drives to the thumb drives that you get. And basically this isn't one, but this is a just a typical USB drive or cable like you get for charging your phone, and they now have them that you can buy and hackers have that. Inside this spot there's a little micro SD card and tech and a circuit board and what they'll do is they'll either walk around a business or in a parking lot and just drop the cable. And you'll walk around, you'll find the cable ain't on the ground. You'll pick it up and like, oh, it looks pretty good. You know, hey, I can use that.
Speaker 3:I got an iPhone and you take it home and you plug it into your iPhone, plug it into your computer, and now they've uploaded ransomware into your iphone. Plug it into your computer and, uh, now they've uploaded ransomware into your computer and, taking control of your computer or your phone, they start stealing all your passwords and all your files, or some of them are audio recorders, so like if they just wanted to listen to what you're doing. You plug it in and now it's an audio device. Some are g GPS trackers, and same with the thumb drives. They're the same thing and you don't know. So you should never, ever use any USB cable or thumb drive that you haven't personally bought from a reputable store, even what they'll do as far as, like you go to conventions or shows, like that People walk around and give free gifts out like hey, we're giving out free gifts to advertise our business. Don't use it, because you don't know what that person's intentions are.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my question I get a question about that. You go into these convenience stores and I've done it before in the past and I'm definitely not going to do it now. But go into a store and you see where they're selling car chargers for your phone. That's like just kind of hanging up there. You just grab it and go with it. So you wouldn't suggest buying one of them?
Speaker 3:It's hard because they even go as far as some hackers go, as far as spending money, because at the offset of what they get if they actually get into your system, especially a business is they don't even go as far as having them packaged to look like real packaging and they'll mail them to you. You know you'll get it like, especially if you're an employee. You'll get a package and it may all address to your company. You'll open it up and there'll be a a packaged usb cable looks like something in the store. But it's not right. You know, and like I said, it's. It's just the best to make sure you buy one that's reputable, like from a reputable store, because they're not just, you know, like you say, the small, smaller stores. You know people can sell their items there, you know, and you don't know what what it's about. You don't even know if the employee there is doing it. You know.
Speaker 2:Interesting, interesting man. So anything else, I mean anything else like you can tell people that they can do at the house without you know, just simple stuff that you can do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, things to be watch out for is like, like, say, the, the cables are one thing there's, you know, you hear about the hidden cameras. I mean, the cameras are on everything teddy bears, they're in smoke detectors and I mean, I got a thing here is like this is just page after page after page of smoke detectors that are sold online for real cheap, that all have hidden cameras in them. You know, and you can stick them up anywhere and there's a camera in it. There's, you know, like this here is an example of a little camera. That's just, that's a big camera. Actually, you know, the cameras they have now are small, like that that you can't even find. And audio devices you know, this is just an example, that that you can't even find. And, um, and audio devices you know, this is just an example of one you can buy online that you just plug a nine volt battery in it, drop it, like I was telling you, drop it in your box over there and it'll record everything that you're doing oh, somebody's here, hang on, so all right.
Speaker 2:So while chad's checking the door, I don't know why they're going to beat on the door like that. So, while chad's shaking the door, um, speaking of like the camera, stuff like that, what, what have you? Have you found? What have some of the interesting things that you have found?
Speaker 3:I well, the big stuff. I haven't found anything like in the fortune 500 company and stuff which is basically you, a lot of times, uh, it's more like a peace of mind. Uh, I think I was telling you earlier about, uh, the friend of mine who I told her what to look for and she found a microphone wired in her bedroom. Uh, the other friend of mine that found a GPS on his truck. That was there because of a relationship that he was going with. It's just, you know, so far I haven't found a lot, which is good, because a lot of times people they have the suspicions for various reasons, you don't know. Like one guy contacted me years ago and I tried to talk him out of it because there was nothing in his house. He was just one of those people that was super paranoid and went and bought one of those cheap RF detectors online and you fired up and it picked. He goes, there's bugs everywhere in my house Like, oh no, there ain't, you know and it's. But he forced me to come do it, you know, and it was more like a peace of mind for a lot of people Cause, like I say a lot of times, I'll just tell people what to find and then because, like I say a lot of times, I'll just tell people what to find and then they'll look around and they'll find the camera themselves.
Speaker 3:You know, and, and you know you look. You know, same with, like, the air tags. Like you know, this is an example of this is an air tag, one that doesn't work now. I use it for training, but you can put it in this thing here, and then car thieves use these all the time now for stealing your cars. Instead of having to stalk you, which is a chance of being caught, now they just go sit in the parking lot show the camera that.
Speaker 2:So so everybody at home, if you're listening, you gotta log on to our youtube channel off the hook podcast, subscribe, like comment and you can see everything he has here.
Speaker 4:It's, it's pretty, pretty neat, um so it just goes in this case. Yeah, it's uh magnetic.
Speaker 3:You just take an air tag, you drop it in, it's waterproof, and car thieves use it a lot of times, or whoever wants to do it, and it's just like anything else. You just walk up to a car and stick it to the car, you know. And the next thing you know, and you stick it in a wiggle. Well, stick it up underneath the bottom of the car and now the car is being tracked. You know, and uh, like I say, car thieves do it a lot now because they'll sit there in the mall parking lot and just sit there and wait to see a car that they want and then they'll wait for you to walk in the mall and then they'll walk up and drop their phone or stumble and trip, because they know people are watching. They.
Speaker 3:They'll wait for the opportune moment and find you somewhere else, yeah, and then they just stick it on there and then they can just go away and that way there's no chance of you seeing someone following you, if you're aware, and then later that night they'll just pull out their phone and come to your house and wake up and your car is gone. You know, there's the big issue now if you watch the news out. In California that's been going on where the burglary ring has been planting cameras in rocks and on trees. They found them because one neighbor was always in his yard and he noticed this rock oven showed up and he picked it up and there was a camera in it. And basically what they do now is they take it and they point it towards the house they want to stake out, to find out what your routine is.
Speaker 3:And there's they found several of them now in california where there's the one burglar ring, you know so you just don't know what people's minds are all about, and you know. You know so you have the hidden cameras. You got the things you got. You got the viruses for your computers. They have these things called keystroke loggers that they plug in between your mouse If you have a wired mouse and it logs all your keystrokes and everything you're doing on a thing. So it's got your passwords, your your login names, all the information, and they unplug it, take it home and you made me want to move to damn care, being like with no technology
Speaker 3:they have it there too. But you know, I mean, it's just uh. The main reason I I've gotten into this was to try to just make people aware. Just like everything like safety and security, you know, you, you try to teach people the to how not to be a victim, which is just being aware. Like you know, you don't walk out and just climbing your car, especially at night. You walk up and look in the back seat before you open the door because you know you don't know if someone wants to look, wants to come after you.
Speaker 3:You know, and there's all kinds of reasons people do this, you know, they do it because of divorces, they do it for business competition, they do it for voyeurism. You know there was one instance where this manager of an apartment complex, every time one of the female tenants would tell him like thought they were doing the right thing, like, hey, I'm going out of town for a while, and he'd go oh great, well, while you're out of town, I'm going to do some maintenance in your house, your apartment, and then he was going in and sticking up smoke detectors.
Speaker 2:Chad, I'm going to get you to talk for a second. Make sure your mic's working.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay, yep, yep.
Speaker 2:All right, you're back, cool. So, dave, we're going to have fun with you, man. We're going to take you outside and let you go around our truck to see what we got going on with us, see if we got anybody tracking us, but this is awesome, man. So if we got anybody tracking us, but this is awesome man. So you live here in Wilmington, yes, okay. So how can you know people? Can you know? You can call us off the hook. You can call us here. Or I have a PI company called the Allen Risk Group here in Wilmington. You can call me. You can call him directly. You can even like and comment on our YouTube channel and we can get you in touch with him. If this is something that you're worried about or worry about in the future, I mean, we can get you a hold of him. Don't worry about it, because that's our specialty is finding people. Ain't there, right, chad? That's what we do. Uh, show everybody what this big ass thing on our table is this thing is what they call?
Speaker 3:uh, it's a mesa, it's a spectrum analyzer and basically when you're um, for when you're looking for transmitting devices g GPS trackers, bluetooth, wi-fi, any of that stuff it's what they call a spectrum analyzer and what it does is it scans the frequency, like it's set from 85 kilohertz to 12 gigahertz and it'll scan that range within split seconds over and over and it'll show any transmitting devices that are in there. And so if there is a hidden camera that's transmitting on Wi-Fi or cellular or a wireless, like these little old bugs that you can buy left and right online, they're in the FM range of the system, so they hide in the same FM range that your radio transmissions are for your car stereo and basically you can just put this in, go home, pull out an old radio and tune it into that channel on FM, which is also the old secret in the old days is how you'd have all this high-tech half a million dollar worth of equipment. And the easiest way to find those bugs is you walk in with an old FM stereo and you just walk in and just scan the frequency and when you hit a bug bug, it'll do the feedback just like a microphone, you know, like a musician, and that's when he tells you oh, there's a transmitter in the building, you know, and it's like that's the easiest low-tech way and you can do that nowadays. Because, like I say, the problem I found was today people are so hung up on the technology and because everything's advanced to that high tech area and they think that that's all the threats. Well, why do you think we couldn't find bin laden all those years was because he didn't use the high tech. He used the low tech from the old days. Because nobody looks for that anymore. They all think it's all high tech.
Speaker 3:And I even had a conversation with two young guys who were bragging about how they were the new wizards of technical surveillance countermeasures. They could find anything out there digital, whatever and I looked at them and I said can you find a screech? And they looked at me and go, what the heck is that? And I said that's how. If I wanted to send a message to somebody, that's how I would do it and you'd never find it. And they go what do you mean? And it's a screech?
Speaker 3:In the old days was I take a tape recorder and record the message. I wanted to send a chat. And then, because you know your phones are bugged, you think your phones are bugged. So then while I call him on the phone he's got a tape recorder recording at his end and I take this back and play it at super high speed. So it's in the background, it's going like noise, and then after the phone call, the record the people listening on the phone hear that thing is just noise. Then after the phone call he takes his tape recorder and plays it back at low speed and there's the message you're talking sweet nothing's chad right now and Wow, and they had no idea.
Speaker 2:Chad's going to end up buying a bunch of men, you know.
Speaker 3:But and that's the thing is like you know, like again today, people think it's all high tech cellular. But these little FM transmitters that are pennies out there, they're sold by the thousands of dollars every year. There's tens of thousands of dollars that are being sold constantly. Somebody's using them. Why? Because no one's checking the low-tech FM range. They're all using high-tech spectrum analyzers and checking the cellular and the Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth.
Speaker 3:It's just like GPS trackers. Gps trackers traditionally there's two types. Generally it was the plant and retrieve, where you plant them on a car and then they record without transmitting and you have to go back and retrieve it to get the information off. Then there's the ones with the cellular that transmit cellular. Well, now there's a new one. It's do.
Speaker 3:It works on wi-fi, where you plant it on a car and it waits till you park your car back in your yard. And when you park your car in the yard, then at a certain point in the middle of the night it connects to your wi-fi in your house and sends the information out. You know so that way. You know. So there's. There's no 100 way of finding things. There's so many different ways of that you have to look like I say you can be your an amateur sleuth and watch all this stuff online and buy a cheap thing and think that you're going to find stuff, but there's not you know, yeah, I've seen that I've like looking in, you know, because that's what we do is surveillance, and you know cameras and stuff.
Speaker 2:I've used one. I've actually sent one back not too long ago because it didn't. It didn't work for shit and um, but yeah, I definitely understand where you come from. That and Chad's over there he's. He's looking at me like oh it's a lot.
Speaker 4:I'm going to start looking. Yeah, I was just looking at your, your little red light One that finds hidden cameras, like in your hotel room or something like that.
Speaker 3:Pretty interesting yeah because that's the thing, like with hidden cameras, like like this thing. Here is a, everyone sees it. It's a usb charger you plug in your wall hiding in plain sight but there's a camera right there, right, you know.
Speaker 3:And if you don't know it, you walk into a hotel and there's one. He's plugged in the wall where you, in your office or something. It's got power all the time, so it's on all the time and it's facing you. That's the one key about a camera is it has to see you, it has to be able to look at you, so it's not if it's pointing the wrong way, it's not worth it. Just like if you go sit in a restroom and you're thinking someone looking at me. Well, if you're sitting on the commode and you're doing your business, look around. The camera has to be able to be in a position to see you. So if there's a sink right in front, of you.
Speaker 2:Look, look at this thing. I do not dread anybody looking at me taking a shit I mean.
Speaker 3:But that that's the thing you know. And it's like the same with the vents up top. You know, if there's a vent, there's a camera. It's not going to be facing the other way, it's going to be facing the, the toilet, you know, and so you have it, just it's. It doesn't take much to to be aware of yourself, it's just a matter of looking and you see something that's suspicious like. There was a recent where a woman was in a bathroom and she just saw this thing that looked like a pen, a pen hanging down from the, from the sink in front of her, and she got curious and went up, looked there and it was a pen camera that a guy just taped up there and it was pointing at her. You know they have cameras now that are in the toilets looking up. You know I'm serious, it's like so you never know.
Speaker 4:You know you're gonna see my brown hat but but the thing you can retrieve my camera.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that I don't know if I want to put my hands in there.
Speaker 3:And you know, like, the thing with cameras is, 99% of the cameras and I'll say 99% because I'll tell you the other story, but 99% of the cameras they have to there's always a little hole, like, if you see a smoke detector above your bed, look at it. And if there's a tiny hole in it facing your bed, look, I would look at it, because smoke detectors don't have little holes in them. You know, same with all the other stuff. If there's a clock, there's got to. You know, usually they'll hide it in the black spot of the clock, so that way you don't see the hole. But there's got to be a hole for the pinhole camera to look out. Well, one way to find them is, if you had you can use, buy something like this. This is a more expensive one, but they have cheap ones that you can buy. You see, they flash a red light and you look through the center and when you do that, you look and you'll see that there's a. You see the light reflecting off the lens. Yep, pretty cool. And that's how you find it. It's everything you have there. Oh, no shit. And so, no matter what it is, it's gonna, you're gonna see that you can use your light on your phone. You turn your all your lights off in your house if you think there might be something there and then just start shining it around. If you see a little white reflection, then I would investigate that.
Speaker 3:You know, uh, you can. You know, um, like I was telling chad earlier, like camera, hidden cameras, you know they record in the nighttime. Well, in order to record at night they have to have an infrared illuminator and you can't see the infrared illuminator by your eyes. But your phone most phones can. You turn it on and the way you can check it is. You have your remote for your TV or your stereo. Well, if you look at it and push the button at the front, you don't see nothing. But if you take it and hold it in front of your phone, you'll see the infrared LED flashing because your phone's sensitive to infrared. And that's the same thing. There you turn your lights off so that the infrared illuminator will have to activate the. So the camera can see anything and you just walk around your house and look and see if you see any kind of white spots popping out.
Speaker 2:You know people give you gifts if you're missing some stuff, you didn't bring it with you today you know, and you know a lot of.
Speaker 3:It's just being aware. Like if people give you gifts, you know, look at them. You know. I mean, especially if they're not family member or love, even them you have to be careful of. But you know, you never know someone might be watching you, but but someone gives you a gift, just take a moment and look at it. You know, like, like a like, say, you collect eagles, you know, because they're not going to give you just any stupid gift because how many gifts have you gotten? And you're throwing in a closet or something because it's like, oh, thank you, but there it goes. You'll never see that.
Speaker 3:But if, say, you collect eagles or you collect stuffed animals, they're going to give you a gift like that because they know that you're going to set it up to display it and inside there could be a camera. So you want to check all that stuff, especially young girls. Someone gives you a teddy bear or stuffed animal, you know, especially college girls. You got a small dorm room so you don't have closets to hide it in. You're going to take the teddy bear and set it up on a shelf. I'll take it and squeeze it. There shouldn't be anything in it. If you squeeze it and you feel something hard, there's got to be a battery or transmitter around the eyes. You squeeze them and just put the camera and wait to be there. Look to see at the eyes if there's a little hole in it, you know. Or the nose, you know, because you just don't know that they can be in anything. They give you a clock, they give you a lamp. You know something that they know you're going to show. You know. You just have to be aware of what you're looking at. You know they just be. You know you don't have to be paranoid, you know. It's not the the purpose of of any seminars or consultations I do with people. It's just making you aware so you don't become a victim.
Speaker 3:You You're out somewhere and you're constantly seeing the same guy. He's everywhere you go. You go to the mall and you see him over there walking in the mall. You go to the restaurant and he's in the restaurant. You go walking around your dog and he's down the street. You know, maybe he's got an air tag or a GPS tracker on your car.
Speaker 3:Too coincidental it is. You know, and someone might know something like all of a sudden you're out and someone repeats something that you know you've only talked about in your house. You know, works with businesses as well and you're like, well, how do they know that? Well, you know you might want to check and see if they, you know exactly, had a lady call me recently about that, or, you know, her ex seems to always know what she's talking about and she's she's been scared to death and I told her so he should check your house, you know, because he might have put something in there, a camera or whatever. You know in the old days, if it's. You know, a lot of the stuff is simple to find because it's just buy and stick somewhere. You know, if someone has access to your house, they could be more creative and dig a hole, like in businesses, the, you know, the push-up tiles. Yeah, they'll drill a little tiny hole there.
Speaker 2:Take this little camera and stick it up there and above your desk and you'll never know it well, I good luck doing it at ours, because if you have to replace ours every freaking two months because it's a water leak, uh it's horrible. So so are you sure, chad, are you sure your mother-in-law didn't put anything on that golden retriever? When you get it?
Speaker 3:well, they have cameras on dogs now too so so you gotta, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's episode three that we did chad. We don't want to rant about a golden retriever.
Speaker 3:Because actually a friend of mine said she wanted to get a camera for her dog. Oh really, yeah, so when she walks in she could have the dog recording everything. You know? I mean you don't know, Like I was telling you, I've got a body cam Like a dash cam, yeah, yeah, and it's even smaller.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, I've got a body cam on me. I carry it all the time. It's not on now, but I carry. Let me see that thing, let me see what yours looks like, in case I need to uh record.
Speaker 3:You get interactive with something. I think I've seen these. Yeah, there's camera turns, yeah, and uh, and you know, and what I like about that is you don't have to do anything special turn it on, all you do is just flip that up and now it's on, because some of them you have to turn on and you have to press the record and I bought this one specifically so it didn't have to and uh, you know, like I say so, you don't know, you could be out there talking to somebody and they've got a button camera or they got a camera in their hat you know, it looks like a little uh voice recorder.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I think it's cool and uh, so you just don't know. You know, know, today's day, there's cameras everywhere, you know, watching you, you know, and, and just because someone's talking to you doesn't mean you don't have a camera. Wow.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you this is a start of a really good relationship right here. I like this Sean Beck. If you ever, in Wilmington, need a tattoo, you got to go see Sean. I got to give Sean a shout out because youout, because he's the one that introduced us to him. He's over there. He's over here. It's Hardwire.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure where he's off.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's on the corner of Market and Front.
Speaker 3:He's amazing.
Speaker 2:He's an amazing person. I've known him for 25 years. I've known him and his family. I've been there since all his kids were born. Same thing he did with mine he got married. I tied his tie for him at his wedding. You know great guy, and I'm so thankful that he's introduced us to Dave here. This has been awesome. As soon as all this air is over on the podcast, we're going to probably pick his brain some more. We're going to go out there and play with our trucks and see what kind of stuff he's got. Chad, you got any more questions for him? Man, this is awesome.
Speaker 4:I think he talked briefly about cell phones, since they're such a big topic, and security with cell phones and people worried about. Can you remotely send, like an app or in order to gain control of somebody's phone and access it, or do you have to physically get a hold of it? Can you do it remotely?
Speaker 3:You can some extent you can do it remotely. That's why they tell you like if you get emails and things like that and you don't know, you open up the email and then there's like click this link to see this picture or click this link to do that like I get things all the time like joe blow has pictures of you. I don't know joe blow, but click this link and you can see if any of the pictures you're like well, hell, no I don't want to know that bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because if you if you click a link for something that you do not know, yeah, that link is what? Will all of a sudden download the malware or ransomware or virus or whatever to your phone?
Speaker 2:And we have seen that in some of the criminal defense cases that we have done, where people have opened it up and it was like kiddie porn and they got charged because they opened it up and they're like I don't know what this is, and then it tears their lives apart and you know, you got some people who do you know who, who are sick in the head.
Speaker 3:Uh, I, I know, I know of a an instance because it was told to me by the person who did it. It was a female and, um, she was dating guy and he was married and didn't tell her and when she found out, obviously she broke it off, but it angered her to no end and she has the knowledge. She told me that she created this own personal app herself and what it would do is it would randomly send her his cell phone naked pics of guys who from a phone. And the issue was was every it wasn't the same phone number, it would randomly send new phone numbers so he couldn't like block that phone number and not get it. And the reason she did that was because she knew his wife to see the pictures and then you know it caused turmoil in the marriage. So you don't know what people are capable of doing.
Speaker 2:Don't date crazy women, you know? Yeah, I've married a few of them.
Speaker 3:They weren't. You didn't know that until you got into it.
Speaker 3:Nope, and you know the same thing with all that. Computers, cell phones, don't ever, ever leave it unattended in a public area, even for a second. Like you know, they're at the counter right there and you leave your computer there and you get up and walk away. It only takes a second for someone to be sitting there watching you and you get up and plug something in real quick and download into your phone or download into your computer. It only takes a split second for that to happen. You know, and so you always just want to maintain control of your property. Same with your females with purses or backpacks, or guys with backpacks. You get up again. You leave your backpack there. You get up and walk over there. Guy's sitting in there watching you. He gets up and drops an air tag in your bag.
Speaker 3:When's the last time you check your stuff? You know. But there again, if your hair's on the back of your neck stand up, you just or you're concerned because you hear this information that you don't know how it got out, or someone's always showing up, or you see the same car parked everywhere. Just take your purse, take your backpack, dump it out completely and then squeeze every section of it and make sure there's nothing hard in one of the seams. You know, just protect yourself. You know, give yourself the peace of mind. Okay, my purse or my bag is clear. You know, like I was actually going to chat is like when's the last time you looked? I mean, I see stuff, you know little little figures and stuff on your shop. When's the last time you looked up there? Somebody comes in here and you walk back there to get a coffee and they just drop a microphone up there.
Speaker 2:You don't know jack.
Speaker 3:We're gonna have some sweet calls but that's how easy it is oh yeah, we have plenty of hiding spots here and most people never look around, you know, unless they're concerned. And that's like for what I do. Yes, this high tech technology and I have all this other gear for your thermal imagers to look for heat sources and I have, you know, there's a special meter for these that you plug this into and if it's a normal one, there won't be any amperage draw on it, but if it's a malicious one, it's going to draw amperage because that's what the technology and it does. But you got to have all these. Like I was telling you, there's a special bluetooth uh thing for finding air tags and samson smart tags and the 360 tiles out there, because bluetooth le bla, like air tags and stuff, is not going away. It's getting better and better because businesses use the BLE for inventory in their buildings because it's not high power, it's low power, you have to be close proximity, but they use it for inventory and it's getting better and better and better and better every year. So that's not going away, but you have to have a special device to find it.
Speaker 3:And even with all that high tech gear, like back when I did the Fortune 500 thing, I had a team of guys, one guy, all he did all day long for two days was do the phone systems, because it's that elaborate. He spent 12 hours a day just checking every single line, checking phones. You know, another guy sat on a spectrum analyzer all day long because things don't transmit all the time. It could be recording and then for a split second transmitted out, just like a GPS tracker. Sometimes they're not constantly out, they'll record and then at predetermined times it'll just send it out. So if you're not watching all the time, you'll miss that spike and you won't notice it.
Speaker 3:Some of them are spread spectrum. There are all these different formats that prevent you from just seeing it right away. So one guy just sat on a spectrum analyzer. Another guy had a near field detector and he just walked around constantly, all day long, slowly, around every single thing, sweeping it to see if there's any energy pops thing, sweeping it to see if there's any energy pops. And what I dealt with, uh, was this physical search which is the most elaborate, it's the most intrusive thing, like if I had to sweep your building, your room here I would have to look in every single thing.
Speaker 2:Nothing is off limits and you're gonna be here for a while well, and that's what it does.
Speaker 3:It sometimes it takes days, but or hours, you know, but that's the only way. Every picture on your wall. I'd have to pick it up, take it off the wall, look around it, scan it for RF, because they could stick it right behind your picture. When's the last time you took the pictures off and looked at? You haven't, most people don't. It could be in anything and every drawer. You know you have to take the drawer out, look underneath it, look inside. It's elaborate, and sometimes that's the only way you find them is. You know, because you, you, all of a sudden you see the camera sticking up well, I tell you what uh dave is.
Speaker 2:It's awesome that you, you came today. I, I chad myself, I can, I can speak for both of us. We want to say thank you again. Um, and how can tell people how they can get a hold of you?
Speaker 3:Well, right now I have my website's not up yet, but you can have an email. It's called privacysweepersllccom, and then my phone number is 910-352-8917 and eventually my website will be up so you can actually go there and get more information.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And if you can't get a hold of him, you can call Chad, chad, give him your number 910-232-3401.
Speaker 2:And you can go off the hook bail. You can send. There's an email up there. You can send emails to him or you can get a hold of me. My number is 919-605-9086. And my website, other than offthehookbailcom, it's the allenriskgroupnet, is the email Email Robert Allen at the Allen Risk Group, but it's the allen Email, robert Allen at the Allen Risk Group, but it's theallenriskgroupcom. But you can get a hold of us if you need us and, like I said, tune in to our YouTube channel, subscribe, like and you can see all this interesting equipment that he brought, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:He's going to end up missing some of it by the end of the day and I think our next episode we're going to be in Florida. I just looked at the calendar. Yeah, we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there. So it's going to be fun. We're going to have we're going to a NAVA convention National Association for Bell Agents. We're going to a NAVA convention National Association for Bell Agents. We're going to be going there and doing a lot of interviews with Bosmans all across the US and we're going to be doing one with Mr Jim.
Speaker 4:Wahlberg yeah, one of the Wahlberg brothers. He has joined up with Bell Agents to do a drug rehab and it's really good stuff. They do a lot of good things. I know Mark Wahlberg does Towers to—what is it called? Michelle told us Tunnels to Towers. That's it. Yeah, so yeah, they do a lot of really interesting good things. So we're looking forward to towers. That's it? Yep, yeah, so yeah, they do a lot of really interesting good things, so we're looking forward to that. That's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dave, thank you for coming on today, it's been awesome.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much, man.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Thanks, man, thanks for being here. All right, guys, that's it for Episode 8. We are getting getting out of here very soon, going to Pensacola, florida, and for that and, but until then, thank you, dave. I'm Rob.
Speaker 4:I'm Chad.
Speaker 2:And tune in off the hook bellcom or go to our YouTube channel off the hook podcast, like subscribe. See you later.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to off the hook with Chadad and rob. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review, and be sure to follow us for notifications for another exciting episode. But in the meantime, you can go to our website at wwwoffthehookbillcom to see more. So until next time, stay out of trouble, or it'll be you that needs to get off the hook. See you soon.