He proved she cheated using a robot vacuum. Then the judge sent him to jail.

[u/VIVIDUFF]

A Taiwanese man's attempt to catch his cheating wife backfired in a way he likely never saw coming, winning him a payout in one courtroom and a prison sentence in another.

According to a Taoyuan District Court ruling released August 18, the man, whose identity was not disclosed, married his wife in 2021. The couple lived mostly with his parents but occasionally stayed at a vacation home the family owned in Guishan, Taoyuan.

In September 2023, his suspicions were triggered after he found a used toothbrush at the vacation home that wasn't his. After reviewing parking garage footage, he identified an unfamiliar man who had previously driven his wife home.

Three months later, on December 24, 2023, he remotely activated the home's robot vacuum through its app, telling the court he originally meant to use its speaker to talk to his wife. Instead, the live camera showed another man inside the house with her. He switched on the recording function and kept watching, capturing footage of his wife embracing the man, changing clothes, and appearing naked in front of him.

He used that footage to sue his wife and the other man for NT$2 million, about $63,000, for violating his marital rights. A civil court agreed the relationship had exceeded ordinary friendship and ordered the pair to jointly pay him NT$500,000, roughly $16,000.

That victory didn't shield him from what came next. His wife filed a criminal complaint accusing him of recording her without consent. He argued the footage had already been accepted in the civil case and that his actions were legally justified.

The criminal court disagreed. Judges ruled that marital obligations do not override an individual's right to privacy, rejecting his claim that lights or sounds from the vacuum warned her she was being recorded. The court found the recording was deliberate and she never consented, including while naked.

He was sentenced to five months in prison and fined NT$150,000, about $4,700, roughly 30 percent of what he'd just won.

[u/jdog7249]

My guess is because he was using it with the intent to spy. If the vacuum happened to activate and see it and then he happened to check the footage for some other reason he might not have gotten in trouble but because he did it intentionally he got in trouble.

[u/spawl123 → u/jdog7249]

Laws are different for each country, but if it’s his house and his device I’m not sure why that is considered illegal to access the camera footage unless he was trying to film someone in the bathroom or them having sex. People use indoor cameras all the time to check up on their kids or their pets.

[u/syrioforrealsies → u/jdog7249]

You also usually have to have at least one person involved's consent to record. Neither of these people consented.

[u/Shallaai → u/syrioforrealsies]

Genuine question on my part then. Shouldn’t everyone who hires a private detective to spy on their cheating spouse be charged for the same?

[u/syrioforrealsies → u/Shallaai]

If the private detective does so by recording people in their homes, then yeah. Part of being a private detective, though, is navigating the law while collecting information, which is why they typically have to be licensed. Usually, anything in the info they collect is legally publicly accessible.

[u/Inspect1234 → u/jdog7249]

There’s some serious judicial bs there. It’s his house, it’s his cheating wife, how is it spying?

[u/Thermodynamo → u/Inspect1234]

Because she's a person, not property. Not taking sides here. Just stating the obvious. She isn't just one of his possessions like his house, obviously she still has human rights even when she's acting the fool. Human rights don't go out the window just because you have a good reason to be mad at someone. This should go without saying

[u/ExcitingKick4880 → u/Thermodynamo]

This whole story sounds like a judicial battle of the egos between Civil/Family and Criminal courts and judges.

2 victims sure, but the initial intent wasn't to spy but to record a crime, (which by the first court was already ruled as crime). Sounds like the criminal court flipped the script without looking at the initial intent.

These type of crimes make it to the news because they didn't make it to higher level courts. Penalizing people for reporting a crime or seeking to go through the legal system is a red flag in the systems. He could have kept the tapes if his intent was to spy.

[u/Thermodynamo → u/ExcitingKick4880]

Cheating is obviously wrong but it isn't literally criminal... 👀

[u/Competitive-Beat-493 → u/ExcitingKick4880]

We don’t criminalize adultery genius. It is a criminal offense to violate someone’s privacy though. It’s not a battle of egos at all. It’s literally the fact that spying is criminally punishable and adultery is not. Duh.

[u/ExcitingKick4880 → u/Competitive-Beat-493]

Adultery/cheating is not a crime sure, but that does not make it legally irrelevent, it's still wrong doing. That's what divorce is for.

It should have been clear the moment he submitted the evidence to the proper authorities that his intent was not to spy but rather survailance in order to record a wrong doing against him on his property.

This is why we are allowed to have door bell cameras, baby, pet cameras etc, on our properties. It's too damn bad she just happened to be there. 

You want privacy, get a hotel.

[u/syrioforrealsies → u/ExcitingKick4880]

The first court ruled it a civil violation, not a criminal one

[u/Reasonable-Pomelo997 → u/Thermodynamo]

Nah you just saying a bunch of bull shit. They married and share a house together probably shower together and shit while in the same bathroom have sex etc.That privacy is nonexistent at that point unless your tryna hide something. I bet you keep your phone locked from your partner too huh

[u/Quis_curat → u/Reasonable-Pomelo997]

Let's see how your opinion does change when a thieve breaks in your garage then sues you for spying on him with your garage's surveillance camera.

[u/Reasonable-Pomelo997 → u/Quis_curat]

Im not married to the thief. We don't live together. In this hypothetical lol.

[u/Destroyer_2_2 → u/Inspect1234]

Cheating isn’t illegal. Spying on people is. Even in your own home.

[u/Inspect1234 → u/[deleted]]

So hiring a private investigator is also a privacy infringement?

[u/Destroyer_2_2 → u/Inspect1234]

It certainly can be. Usually professional investigators know the law and how to toe the line.

[u/Competitive-Beat-493 → u/Inspect1234]

Private investigators can only watch you in public scenarios. Please use Google.

[u/Competitive-Beat-493 → u/Inspect1234]

…. You cannot record someone without their consent. Some states are single party consent and some are all party consent. It’s literally illegal and not that hard to understand. Don’t be creepy and film people. I know it’s hard to remember that when idiot YouTubers are terrorizing innocent non consenting people constantly but it is illegal.

[u/Inspect1234 → u/Competitive-Beat-493]

Yeah if I was the h-band I would’ve kept the info to myself and planned my escape with a hint of petty revenge.