TAMPA – For many of us, pets are part of the family. But when you leave your pets in the hands of a sitter, you trust that your pets are being properly cared for.
An I-Team investigation found some pet sitters are skipping out early, leaving your dogs and cats alone at home.
Using hidden cameras, the I-Team wanted to find out if in-home pet sitters really watch your pets for as long as they claim. We asked several pet owners to set up 30-minute visits with local pet sitters. The visits cost $15 to $23 dollars, depending on the sitter.
Mary Alexander of St. Pete Beach hired “Give Me Your Paw” pet services to watch her two labs for the “approximately-30 minute” visits they describe on their website.
“All I wanted was for her to give them a half-hour of TLC,” said Alexander.
When the sitter arrived on the first day, the hidden cameras show she took the dogs out for a walk. But after just 4 minutes, she came back in, filled out a comment card, and took off. The total time she spent at the house was just 10 minutes. The next day, she was in and out in just 8 minutes.
“If someone told me they were going to give me a half-hour massage and they stopped at 15 minutes, I’d be a little angry,” Alexander said.
“Give Me Your Paw” pet services refused to answer our questions on-camera. In an e-mailed statement, the owner said she left early because she felt “threatened” by the two dogs.
She claims she was “greeted by charging dogs with aggressive behavior”. Our cameras show she took the dogs out for a walk and gave them treats without incident. In 3 comment cards written by the sitter, she never notes any aggressive behavior.
She wrote on one, “They were very good!”. An another she wrote, “Starting barking but then when they got settled they were good.”
“I don’t understand why she shouldn’t have wanted to stop and play with the animals if she’s an animal lover,” Alexander said.
We looked at other home pet sitters as well. For years, Joey Trowbridge has been using Wags and Wiggles sitters to watch her cats: Liam, Lola, and Lucy.
“I travel on business often, so it’s kind of a requirement for me,” Trowbridge said.
She says her own security cameras caught the employee skipping out early again and again. Instead of the 30 minutes she says she paid for, her video’s time stamps show the sitter leaving in 15 minutes, 6 minutes, and in one visit, after just 4 minutes.
“I was like, ‘You’ve got to me kidding me.’ This can’t be right,” Trowbridge said, describing her first reaction to seeing the video.
Wags and Wiggles responded that Trowbridge has been a problem client, and that “her cats and not social cats and did not want to play.” They added, “At Wags and Wiggles, it has always been about the proper care and well being of the animals in our care, not about minutes.” They also claim they never promised Joey a 30-minute visit.
But their website did state that “All visits are approximately 1/2 hour,” and “We guarantee you will get the time you paid for!” Since they were notified of the I-Team investigation, both of those lines have been removed from their website.
The I-Team had our cameras rolling as “Wags and Wiggles” sat for another pet owner in Tampa over two days. In these visits, “Wags and Wiggles” delivered exactly what they promised, walking the dog for a full 30 minutes.
“Alone At Home” pet services in Largo also gave the dog the full 30 minutes of attention they promised.
While it may not seem like much, the pet owners we spoke with said the difference between 30 minutes and 5 is huge.
“These are my babies. They couldn’t tell me, “Hey mom, she’s spending five minutes here.” I didn’t know. I had to find out on the security camera,” Trowbridge said.
The Better Business Bureau says anyone using a pet sitter should get in writing exactly what you expect your sitter to do, and you should ask for references before you hire someone.
Charges have been filed against the River Valley High School student accused of planting a video camera in the girl’s locker room.
That’s according to our reporting partners at WSJM.
Trenton Prentice, 17, is facing one count of attempting to capture the image of an unclothed person, a felony charge with a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.
He was suspended last Friday, giving the district time for due process, and the student time to decide if he wants a lawyer, and how he will answer to the board.
At Monday night’s meeting, Superintendent Will Kearney laid out the latest on the situation for the school board and concerned parents.
Kearney said administrators met with students to discuss new security procedures to make sure a similar incident isn’t repeated.
The school has since begun using aides to lock and unlock the locker room. They’re also ordering an alarm for outside doors and will have police look over the area to see if there are any more ways the school can improve safety.
Three girls found the hidden camera under a sink Friday afternoon. Fortunately, all that was captured was some blurry video of the bathroom floor, but the incident has still left many students and parents uneasy.
Will Kearney, Superintendent, River Valley Schools, explains how he hopes that it does not happen again, “It was an unfortunate incident and I really don’t anticipate that this will happen again, but I’ve been surprised before and we’re a typical district and sometimes students make poor choices and unfortunately they made a poor choice.”
River Valley’s Principal is expected to make a recommendation to the board later this week on whether the student should be expelled, suspended for an extended time, or allowed back.
A special disciplinary meeting is scheduled for next Thursday.
Have you ever had a computer or phone get stolen and you want nothing more than to track down who took it? We did just that with the help of tracking software.
“It was an iPhone 4S. Brand new, $250 phone, $50 case,” said David Dyer, who had left his iPhone in the back of a taxi.
Less than five minutes later he said he called the cab company, but they said it was gone.
“I think the guy, as soon as he let me out, sees my phone in the backseat and just takes it and pockets it,” Dyer said.
It’s not just taxis — the LAPD reports that cellphone thefts have increased 32 percent in some areas and that thefts of laptops and tablet computers are also on the rise.
Dyer said that he tried to call his phone, but it was already turned off leaving no way to track it down.
“I think it’s long gone. There’s nothing I can do,” Dyer said.
While he never got his phone back, we wanted to see if there was a way to track down stolen cellphones or computers, so we purchased some tablet computers and installed security software.
“How it works is all these smart devices have the ability to track themselves,” said Con Mallon with Symantec.
He said that with anti-theft software, we should not only be able to find it, but also turn on the camera to see who is using it.
So we went to LAX where hundreds of cabs pick up passengers every day. With a hidden camera, our undercover producers hailed a taxi.
When we got out we purposely left the computer in the back seat. Then we called the cab company minutes later to see if we would get it back.
The first three were returned by the drivers after we called.
The fourth cab was one from United Independent Taxi. When we got out we left the computer visible on the backseat; then called their dispatcher.
“I just took one of your cabs from LAX to my hotel here in El Segundo and I can’t seem to find my tablet,” our undercover producer said.
They said they would get a message to the driver.
“If he finds the tablet in the back seat, you’ll give him my number to call me back is that right” our producer confirmed?
Later that day they called back and left this message on our voicemail — “The driver did call back and no tablet was found, OK? Thank you.”
So we turned on the anti-theft software, which works when the computer connects to Wi-Fi.
The next day it traced the tablet to a location in North Hollywood.
We clicked on the sneak peak function, using the camera to take pictures. We captured pictures of what appeared to be a young girl using the computer and then what looked to be a teenage boy.
When we went to the address on the map, we found the same taxi we took at LAX parked a few doors away.
With a hidden camera we watched as the same driver, who picked us up at LAX, came out to his cab along with the same girl and boy that we saw in the pictures.
The software led us right to them.
Later I showed him a similar computer.
“Did you find this in the back of your cab,” I asked?
“No,” he replied.
“You never found one of these,” I pressed?
“No,” he said.
Then I showed him the pictures.
“That’s your child isn’t it,” I asked?
“Yeah,” he said.
“We had a tracking device in the tablet. It came from your house. Your child was on it
Maybe,” I questioned?
He claimed he never found it and said his son may have found it in the cab.
“Every day when I come in, my son cleans my car. I don’t know. They found it, something inside the car, I don’t know,” he said.
He went inside his house and less than two minutes later was able to find our computer, which he claimed he knew nothing about.
“My wife telling me that my son tell her that when they washing the car they found it somewhere in here,” the driver said.
“They found it back there? How did it end up back there? It was on the seat,” I asked?
“I don’t know,” he said.
But we ended up getting our tablet back.
“This alone makes me feel like justice is served,” Dyer said.
Something he could not do, but we did with the help of modern technology tracking it to inside the cab driver’s house.
Los Angeles police recently arrested Alejandro Gamiz, 27, on suspicion of burglary and the surreptitious filming of unsuspecting women. The maintenance worker at a North Hollywood Sears is accused of placing hidden cameras in the store’s fitting rooms and bathrooms.
Gamiz worked for the retailer for three years, and reportedly placed up to 60 cameras behind store walls. When a loss prevention employee recently noticed something suspicious during a routine inspection, the company notified the Los Angeles Police Department.
Sears has searched the store and investigators have since seized security footage, according to the official LAPD blog. Gamiz is also cooperating. Police, however, are not seeking to identify any of the victims at this time.
They may eventually want to, though. Sears caters to the entire family and sells clothing and other items to teenagers and children. If Alejandro Gamiz installed hidden cameras outside all women’s bathrooms and fitting rooms, chances are he recorded at least one underage individual. Depending on what the minor was doing on tape, he could arguably be liable for the creation and possession of child pornography.
Sexual activity is not a requirement for child pornography. The images only need be sufficiently sexually suggestive.
Such a charge would carry a significantly harsher punishment than the secret filming of undressed women. It would also give prosecutors the leverage needed to negotiate a longer sentence, should Gamiz choose to accept a plea deal. And given the extent and duration of his alleged crimes, prosecutors will likely want to put Alejandro Gamiz behind bars for as long as possible.
DNS Auto Glass Responds to Hidden Camera Investigation
May 2, 2012
by Katie O’Mara, komara [at] glass [dot] com
A recent hidden camera investigation into the DNS Auto Glass location in Louisville, Ky., has been making news in the Louisville area. The report, done by WAVE 3, allegedly caught a sales representative employed with the Louisville DNS Auto Glass shop committing insurance fraud.
According to video from the television station, the salesman was attempting to file a claim with an insurance company for a windshield replacement when the windshield only suffered a small, repairable crack.
“There was never a claim filed and it was not put through insurance. There was never a job set up or an appointment made,” says Jeff Searles, owner of DNS Auto Glass.“We are still in the process of investigating this. The salesperson that was represented on the video cannot be found to exist in any of our referral sources. It’s not a name on any of our rosters. The former employee that they spoke to was very disappointing because I am not sure where he got his information from. I was very perplexed that he didn’t feel like the policies applied to him.”
“It is impossible for anybody to control or have all of their employees do everything right 100 percent of the time,” says Searles. “We can just direct them and support the authorities and that’s all that we can do.”
Searles said that if an investigation showed any fraud they would immediately terminate the offending employee and cooperate with the proper authorities.
“We actually reward our technicians for finding fraud because we don’t want anything to do with it,” says Searles. “Our last line of defense to ensure our integrity is the technician. They are told when they get there if there is no damage to not put the windshield in, notify the dispatch and take pictures.”
DNS Auto Glass uses computer software and Searles confirmed that technicians take photos that are uploaded and available for viewing.
“We are inspected regularly. We have yet to have one formal complaint to us from any insurance company as it relates to fraud,” says Searles. “We don’t want to do it wrong. If someone is committing fraud then we want to know about it.”
The Kentucky Department of Insurance is currently considering the television station’s report.
DNS Auto Glass has nine locations throughout Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, New York and Connecticut.
