Man Hacks Wi-Fi Camera Network, Threatens To Kidnap Baby

HOUSTON (CBS Local) -- A Texas couple says someone hacked into the Nest Wi-Fi wireless camera network they use to keep an eye on their infant son and pretended to kidnap the baby.

Nathan and Ellen Rigney of Houston say it happened Monday just before midnight when they were fast asleep downstairs and 4-month-old Topper was asleep upstairs. Ellen said she suddenly heard beeping coming from the monitor next to her bed.

"I said, 'Hey, what is this? What's going on?'" Ellen Rigney told KPRC. "Then we heard sexual expletives being said in his room."

When Nathan and Ellen jumped out of bed and turned on the light, a Nest camera in their room, which had been off, suddenly turned on, and a man's voice ordered them to turn the light off.

"Then he said 'I'm going to kidnap your baby, I'm in your baby's room,'" Ellen Rigney said.

Nathan Rigney rushed out of the room and upstairs, only to find Topper was safe and sound. That's when Ellen remembered reading a story about Wi-Fi camera hacking.

"He's not in here, somebody's hacking this," Rigney told her husband.

The Rigneys immediately shut down their Wi-Fi and called police. They are now monitoring Topper with a camera that doesn't use Wi-Fi.

"It's unnerving and unsettling," Ellen Rigney said. "You have something that is supposed to make you feel better and instead it makes you feel the opposite, it makes you feel invaded and uncomfortable."