Husband uses a robot vacuum to catch his wife’s affair, then lands in prison with a fine of more than $4,700

A husband in Taiwan was sentenced to five months in prison and fined more than $4,700 after he used a robot vacuum to record his wife with another man, the South China Morning Post reported. The man was not identified in the coverage.

He first won a civil case against his wife and the other man, and he was later convicted of invading his wife’s privacy, the report said.

The couple reportedly married in 2021 and lived with the husband’s parents. Local media reported that they also stayed at times at their holiday home.

Court rejects claim that vacuum footage was legally justified

In September 2023, the husband found a used toothbrush at the holiday home, local media reported. He also reviewed parking garage security footage that showed an unknown man driving his wife home. Three months later, he remotely turned on the holiday home’s robot vacuum through an app on his cellphone. On the live feed, he found his wife with another man, the report said.

The video reportedly showed his wife changing clothes, embracing the other man, and walking around the house naked. The other man was apparently seen lying on the sofa. The husband then used the footage as evidence to sue his wife and the other man for infringing on his marital rights. He reportedly sought the equivalent of $68,000 in damages. Surveillance tactics can backfire, as in the case of a woman who caught her husband allegedly cheating and then wore the other woman’s outfit.

According to the New York Post, a court ordered the wife and the other man to pay him $17,000 in compensation. The wife then countersued, accusing him of recording private footage without her consent. The court rejected the husband’s defense that his actions were “legally justified” because the video had already been accepted by the civil court. He insisted he had not meant to record his wife cheating on him and had only wanted to confront her, the report said.

Any lights or voice alerts from the robot vacuum were apparently found insufficient to let the wife know she was being recorded. This case highlights how technology can expose infidelity, as when a wife learned her husband was cheating after seeing an order on their shared DoorDash account.

According to a guide by Recording Law, Taiwan’s Communication Security and Surveillance Act Article 29 allows a party to a communication to record it without telling the other people involved, if the recording is not made for an illegal purpose. That one-party consent rule applies to a person who is taking part in the conversation or exchange.

Criminal Code Article 315-1 separately covers using instruments or equipment to peek at, photograph, or record another person’s private activities, body, or intimate parts without justification. The penalty listed there is up to three years in prison, detention, or a fine of up to NT$30,000.

The same article is described as targeting people who are not part of the activity being recorded, including secret video of private conduct in a place where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. CSSA Article 24 imposes a penalty of up to 5 years’ imprisonment for unauthorized third-party surveillance of communications.

The published reports on this case did not name the exact statute used for the five-month prison term and the fine of more than $4,700. The husband maintained that he turned on the vacuum to confront his wife, not to make a secret recording of an affair.