I Hid a Camera in My Baby's Nursery — At 2:17 AM the Door Opened, and It Wasn't Who I Expected — Transcript

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1. 0:00At 2:17 in the morning, my phone buzzed
2. 0:02on the nightstand. I knew what it was
3. 0:04before I looked. It was the motion alert
4. 0:07from the camera I wasn't supposed to
5. 0:08have. I sat up slowly. My wife, Megan,
6. 0:12was asleep next to me. Her back was to
7. 0:14me. I didn't wake her. I never wanted to
8. 0:17be the guy who hides a camera in his
9. 0:19baby's room. 3 days earlier, Megan had
10. 0:22called me paranoid. She said it right to
11. 0:24my face in our kitchen with her arms
12. 0:26crossed. Kirk, she's a baby. Babies cry,
13. 0:30but this wasn't normal crying. My
14. 0:33daughter, Lily, was 7 months old. She
15. 0:36was a happy baby. Then, every time my
16. 0:38wife's mother came over, Lily would
17. 0:40scream. Not fuss, scream. Her whole body
18. 0:44went stiff. And I kept noticing
19. 0:46something. Nobody else noticed it or
20. 0:49nobody said so. So, I bought a small
21. 0:51camera. I hid it in the bookshelf
22. 0:53between two stuffed animals. Now, I
23. 0:56opened the app. My thumb was shaking.
24. 0:58The nursery door was opening. Slowly,
25. 1:01someone was standing in the hallway
26. 1:03light. It wasn't grandma. I knew that
27. 1:06face. Then I saw what they were holding.
28. 1:08My phone fell. I picked my phone up off
29. 1:11the floor. The screen had a crack across
30. 1:13one corner. I didn't care. I looked at
31. 1:16the face on the screen again. Then I
32. 1:18looked at Megan. She hadn't moved. Let
33. 1:21me back up. Megan and I got married 6
34. 1:23years ago. We tried for 3 years to have
35. 1:26a baby. When Lily finally came, I cried
36. 1:29in the hospital hallway like a kid. I'm
37. 1:31a plumbing contractor. I don't cry much.
38. 1:34We live in a small house in Ohio.
39. 1:36Megan's mother, Carol, lives 20 minutes
40. 1:39away. She came every Sunday. She brought
41. 1:42casserles and opinions. I didn't mind.
42. 1:44Megan needed help and I was on job sites
43. 1:4710 hours a day. The first time Lily
44. 1:49screamed, I figured she was teething.
45. 1:51The second time, I figured she was
46. 1:53tired. By the fifth time, I stopped
47. 1:56figuring. Here is what bothered me. Lily
48. 1:58only screamed when Carol held her. But
49. 2:01once I walked into the nursery early on
50. 2:03a Wednesday, Carol wasn't there. Lily
51. 2:06was in the crib and she was already
52. 2:07screaming. Right when the baby monitor
53. 2:10clicked off, I told Megan. She said I
54. 2:13was tired. I wasn't tired. I was
55. 2:15counting. I started paying attention to
56. 2:18small things. Megan began taking her
57. 2:20phone to the bathroom. She kept it face
58. 2:22down. She never used to do that. Carol
59. 2:25started asking me questions. How busy
60. 2:28was the business? How much did we have
61. 2:30in savings? Who was the accountant? She
62. 2:33asked it like she was making small talk,
63. 2:35but Carol never made small talk. She
64. 2:38made lists. Then came the thing with the
65. 2:40closet. We kept a fireproof box in the
66. 2:42nursery closet. It held our deeds, our
67. 2:45insurance papers, and the business
68. 2:47records. It was the quietest room in the
69. 2:49house. I kept the box on the top shelf
70. 2:52behind the diaper boxes. One Saturday, I
71. 2:55went to grab a tax file. The box was
72. 2:57sitting a few inches to the left of
73. 2:59where I'd left it. The lock had fresh
74. 3:01scratches. I didn't say anything to
75. 3:03Megan. I told myself it was the cleaning
76. 3:06lady. We don't have a cleaning lady.
77. 3:08That night, I ordered the camera. It
78. 3:11arrived in 2 days. I set it up while
79. 3:13Megan was at yoga. The first night
80. 3:15showed nothing. I almost took it down.
81. 3:18I'm glad I didn't. Then came the second
82. 3:20night. I turned the screen back on and
83. 3:22watched everything. The man in the
84. 3:24nursery doorway was Tom Brewer, my
85. 3:27business partner, my best friend for 15
86. 3:29years. He was best man at my wedding.
87. 3:32Tom walked in like he'd done it before.
88. 3:34No light. He went straight to the closet
89. 3:37and took down our fireproof box. He
90. 3:39opened it with a key, a key I never gave
91. 3:41him. He lifted out the house deed and
92. 3:44photographed it. Then the company
93. 3:46papers. In his other hand was a sheet of
94. 3:48paper. He held it up to the light. I
95. 3:51zoomed in. It was a transfer of my half
96. 3:53of the business to Tom. My signature was
97. 3:56at the bottom. Dated last Friday. I
98. 3:59never signed it. Lily started crying.
99. 4:02Tom just rocked the crib with his foot.
100. 4:04He didn't even look down. Then something
101. 4:06buzzed under my wife's pillow. I felt it
102. 4:09through the mattress. Megan reached for
103. 4:11her phone. She read the screen. Her eyes
104. 4:14were open. They had been open the whole
105. 4:16time. She typed one word. Then she put
106. 4:19the phone back and closed her eyes. I
107. 4:21lay completely still. My wife knew he
108. 4:24was in our house. I didn't move until
109. 4:26Tom's car left. I watched it back out of
110. 4:28the driveway on the doorbell camera.
111. 4:30Then I lay there until the sun came up.
112. 4:33Here is what I did not do. I did not
113. 4:35wake Megan. I did not call Tom. I did
114. 4:38not yell. At 6:00, I made coffee. Megan
115. 4:41came down at 7:00. She kissed my cheek.
116. 4:44You look tired, she said. Long night, I
117. 4:47said. That was true. I drove to work
118. 4:50like it was any other day. But two
119. 4:52blocks from the shop, I pulled over and
120. 4:54called a lawyer. Her name was Janet
121. 4:56Wnjak, a friend of a friend. She picked
122. 4:59up at 7:30. I told her everything. She
123. 5:02was quiet for a long time. Then she
124. 5:04asked one question. Is that video saved
125. 5:07somewhere Megan can't reach? It wasn't.
126. 5:10I fixed that in the parking lot. Janet
127. 5:12gave me three rules. Don't confront
128. 5:15anyone. Don't sign anything. Act normal.
129. 5:18Normal was the hard part. That night,
130. 5:21Megan asked if I wanted to invite her
131. 5:23mother for Sunday dinner. I said yes. I
132. 5:26smiled. Janet had noticed one more small
133. 5:28thing. The paper Tom held had a notary
134. 5:31stamp. Janet worked fast. By Wednesday,
135. 5:34she had found a notary. Her name was
136. 5:36Denise Hartley. She worked at a small
137. 5:38title office across town. Ohio notaries
138. 5:41have to keep a journal of every signing.
139. 5:43Janet sent a records request that
140. 5:45afternoon and she kept it polite. Denise
141. 5:48called back on Thursday. She sounded
142. 5:50scared. Her journal had no entry for my
143. 5:53name. None. But her stamp had been used
144. 5:55that Friday. She said her stamp was
145. 5:58usually locked in a drawer, and the only
146. 6:00person who borrowed it was a man who did
147. 6:01closings for her office. That man was
148. 6:04Tom's own cousin. Janet's accountant
149. 6:06went through the business accounts. Tom
150. 6:08had moved $41,000 into a company I had
151. 6:11never heard of. small amounts spread
152. 6:13over eight months. I sat in Janet's
153. 6:16office and listened quietly. Janet laid
154. 6:18out the plan. Sunday dinner. Everyone at
155. 6:21my table. Her parallegal would wait in
156. 6:23the hallway. A deputy would be 10
157. 6:26minutes away. I would say very little.
158. 6:28Let them talk. Janet said people talk
159. 6:31when they think they've won. I went
160. 6:33home. Megan was folding Lily's laundry.
161. 6:36Her phone buzzed on the counter. She
162. 6:38turned it over very fast. Sunday came
163. 6:41fast. Carol arrived at 5:00 with a
164. 6:43casserole. Tom showed up at 6:00 holding
165. 6:46a bottle of wine. He hugged me. I hugged
166. 6:49him back. That was the hardest thing
167. 6:51I've ever done. Megan set the table.
168. 6:53Lily slept upstairs. The camera was
169. 6:56still in her room and the baby monitor
170. 6:58sat on the counter. We ate. Tom talked
171. 7:01about a big job coming in. He laughed a
172. 7:03lot. Carol asked again about the savings
173. 7:05account. I put down my fork. Tom, I
174. 7:09found something strange in the nursery
175. 7:10closet, I said. The lock on our box
176. 7:13looked scratched. Nobody spoke. Megan
177. 7:16stared at her plate. Funny thing, Tom
178. 7:19said. Probably Lily playing. Maybe. I
179. 7:23slid my phone across the table. I put a
180. 7:25camera up. After Carol's visits made
181. 7:28Lily cry. I pressed play. Tom's own face
182. 7:31filled the screen. Then the deed. Then
183. 7:34the transfer paper. Carol's fork hit her
184. 7:36plate. Tom's chair scraped back. The
185. 7:39doorbell rang. Janet's parallegal stood
186. 7:41in the hall with a folder. Behind her
187. 7:43stood a deputy. Mr. Brewer, the deputy
188. 7:46said. I need you to stay seated. Megan
189. 7:50finally looked at me. She was crying. I
190. 7:52kept watching her face. Tom was arrested
191. 7:55that night. Forgery, theft, and fraud.
192. 7:58Carol was taken in for questioning.
193. 8:01Megan sat at the table until 2:00 in the
194. 8:03morning. Then she told me Carol had
195. 8:05pushed her for a year. Money was tight,
196. 8:08Carol said. Tom could fix it. Megan only
197. 8:11had to keep me asleep and keep quiet.
198. 8:13The word she typed that night was clear.
199. 8:15I asked her one question. Why didn't you
200. 8:18just tell me? She said, "Because I knew
201. 8:21you'd say no." She was right. I would
202. 8:24have. Lily screaming made sense later.
203. 8:26Tom had been in the nursery for weeks in
204. 8:29the dark, smelling of cigars. Carol's
205. 8:31coat smelled the same. Our baby wasn't
206. 8:34scared of grandma. She was scared of
207. 8:36that smell. Tom took a plea. 18 months
208. 8:39and he repaid every dollar. The forge
209. 8:41transfer was voided. The company is mine
210. 8:44again. Megan and I are divorced. We
211. 8:46share Lily and we're civil. I don't hate
212. 8:49her. I just stopped trusting her. The
213. 8:52camera is gone. Lily is too now. Last
214. 8:55night, she giggled in her crib and asked
215. 8:56for her stuffed bear. I sat on the floor
216. 8:59beside her until she finally fell
217. 9:00asleep.