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Were Cuban Spies Foiled By Retail Technology Device?

Written by Evan Schuman
June 6th, 2009

When former State Department official Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, were arrested and charged this week with spying for Cuba for 30 years, the big question in Washington was “How did they get away with for it for so long?” It seems that retail technology—specifically loss-prevention closed-circuit cameras—may have played a small role.

According to a federal indictment unsealed Friday (June 5), Gwendolyn Myers said that “her favorite way of passing information involved the changing of shopping carts in a grocery store because it ‘was easy enough to do.'” She added that she “wouldn’t do it now. They have cameras but they didn’t then.” So the next time you’re putting together an ROI argument for buying more security cameras, you can officially add “national security” and “thwarting enemy spies trying to fund terrorism” to your PowerPoint. For American chains, do it around July 4th and how could you possibly be turned down?

Posted in In-Store, Security/Fraud
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One Comment | Read Were Cuban Spies Foiled By Retail Technology Device?

  1. E Chain Says:
    June 11th, 2009 at 7:37 am

    I read the headline and I thought, another case of “Our man in Havana”… nice movie btw.

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