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There’s a video camera in my room and we’re not talking about the one in our smartphone, must have been the exclamation of Chris and Dana White of Pensacola, Florida when they found a video camera hidden behind their stateroom’s television aboard the Carnival Fantasy in October 2017.
The shocking episode was first described in December 2017, via a Miami news outlet, which shared photos and the White’s story. At that time, I remember reading about the episode and thinking immediately what an odd thing to have occurred, but for an old Cold War warrior seeing rooms bugged with audio or video wasn’t exactly new science.
Then this past week, the story recycled, with a Newsweek writeup and an Inside Edition piece.
Here’s the device as photographed by the Whites.
When I saw this image, my thoughts were, it looks to be an inexpensive video camera (not tiny by any means) wired and electric taped to a device which may have contained storage for the video and that the antenna was present to allow remote access and download. Meaning, the miscreant who put the device in the stateroom was able to get within X-distance of the device to remotely interrogate and remove video. That would be either at a port or from within the Carnival Fantasy.
Now the close-up of the device’s wiring and antenna would seem to fly in the face of the Carnival’s claim that their security personnel determined, on the spot, that the device had no access to power. Could this splice be to provide power from the television? If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship and tried to use the wifi network you know that if that wifi antenna isn’t close to your stateroom you aren’t picking up the signal in your room. So proximity to the stateroom, U160 in this case, - at port or from the ship.
Furthermore, having been on more than a few cruises and engaged with both the technical and security teams, I have yet to be on a cruise (and my family cruises almost always on one of the many lines owned by Carnival) where a technologist would be able to determine that a device such as this was “non-threatening” or “non-operational.”
Of particular note is the comment from the Whites, “Their goal was to quiet everything down and not make a big deal of it, to not alert other guests, I’m learning that when you’re a victim of a crime onboard a ship, the individuals that are there to help you and investigate work for the cruise line, so they’re not necessarily going to have your best interests at heart.”
So what to make of this video caper on the Carnival Fantasy?
This is a representative photo of a room similar to U160 on the Carnival Fantasy. The room has a window and the television is in the corner. The Whites tell us that the device was pointed at their bed.
Given the likelihood that any interrogation or video signal capture from this device would need to be in proximity, one would look to see who or what rooms were close by. U160 is bracketed by similarly configured staterooms. The likelihood, from this trained eye, that the device was placed there by a passenger in the adjoining staterooms is highly unlikely to the point of improbable.
More likely, given the amount of splicing into and positioning which is evidenced in the above photos, it would appear that there may be a higher probability of an inside job. Let’s look at the deck plan. The gray area across from room U160 appears to be crew space behind the staircase and elevators. This space would seem to satisfy the two parameters necessary for private and controlled interrogation of the device: 1 — out of sight and 2 — in close proximity.
Which leave us with more questions.
Did Carnival inspect the crew work spaces nearby, question room stewards, etc.?
They are mum, beyond the normal statement that law enforcement was informed of the incident, though as White notes both in 2017 and during the recent 2018 Inside Edition piece, there appeared to have little or no effort to maintain the sterility of the evidence, as the crew covered the device with their own fingerprints as they inspected and removed the device.
Absent carrying a full-on technical security countermeasures (TSCM) equipment kit, the type that are used to sweep a room for audio/video bugs, we are left to conducting a visual inspection of our spaces on cruise ships.
Disclosure: Christopher Burgess, the author, has enjoyed many a cruise vacation and intends to enjoy many more. He is a stockholder in Carnival Cruise Lines, the parent company to Carnival, Princess, Holland America, and other cruise lines.
