A spy store salesman testified Kwame Kilpatrick’s staff visited his shop to buy counter-surveillance equipment for the mayor’s office in 2007.
Brian Lang of Lathrup Village-based store Spy Ops testified for the government, which is trying to prove Kilpatrick misspent charity donations and defrauded donors by purchasing counter-surveillance and anti-bugging equipment.
Lang injected a dose of color into an otherwise dull day of testimony.
“We sell spy gadgets,” Lang told jurors. “For people looking for cheating wives, for corporate espionage and whatever. If you think you have a hidden camera in your house, office or business, we’re the lucky people you call to help find ‘em.”
A Kilpatrick staffer visited his shop in October 2007, Lang testified.
“He was looking for something to find covert cameras and listening devices,” Lang said. “He told me there was some controversy amongst people in the office. He said there was some distrust going on and they didn’t know who they could trust. They wanted us to do sweeps (for hidden devices).”
The staffer spent $1,397 on several pieces of equipment, including a device that finds transmitter bugs and a wireless camera finder.
“It’s the ultimate game of cat and mouse,” Lang said.
The gadgets included a SpyFinder.
“It can find any camera, wireless, hardwired, broken, turned off, it doesn’t mater,” Lang said.
The bill went to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, the charity prosecutors allege Kilpatrick treated like his personal piggy bank.
Prosecutors showed jurors a check for the spy gadgets from the Civic Fund. It was dated Oct. 15, 2007, and signed by Kilpatrick’s mistress and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.
His firm’s website has a Top Ten list of reasons to buy spy gadgets. Reason number ten:
Use a mantel clock hidden camera to spy on your teenage daughter and her boyfriend while they’re “watching a movie” in your living room.