A Taiwan man who suspected his wife was having an affair used an unlikely surveillance tool — a robot vacuum — to gather evidence at their holiday home.
While the footage helped him win a legal case against his wife and her alleged lover, his attempt to expose the affair ultimately landed him in jail for violating his wife’s privacy.
According to the South China Morning Post, the couple married in 2021 and lived with the man’s parents, regularly visiting their holiday home during the holidays.
In September 2023, the man became suspicious after discovering a used toothbrush at the property.
He later reviewed CCTV footage from a nearby parking garage and identified a man who had previously driven his wife home.
Three months later, the man accessed the live feed from the holiday home’s robot vacuum through its mobile application. The footage allegedly showed his wife being intimate with the other man.
He recorded the footage as evidence for legal proceedings, capturing scenes of his wife hugging the man and being naked at the house while he was lying on the couch.
The man subsequently sued his wife and the alleged lover for violating his marital rights, seeking NT$2 million (about RM255,113) in damages.
The court ruled in his favour and ordered his wife to pay him NT$500,000 (about RM63,778), finding that her relationship with the other man had “surpassed the limits of ordinary friendship”.
However, the legal victory came at a cost.
His wife later filed a counterclaim over the recording of private footage without her consent. The man argued that he had been legally justified in recording the footage to prove the affair.
The court rejected his argument, sentencing him to five months in jail and imposing a NT$150,000 (about RM19,133) fine for unlawfully recording private images.
The court also ruled that marital obligations did not override an individual’s right to privacy.
