Man uses robot vacuum to catch cheating wife, gets jailed for recording affair

A man who used a robot vacuum's built-in camera to catch his wife having an affair won a civil lawsuit against her and her lover, but was later sentenced to five months in prison for secretly recording them.

According to South China Morning Post, a court ruling indicated that the incident happened at the couple’s holiday home, where they would occasionally stay after getting married in September 2021.

His suspicions began in September 2023 after he found a used toothbrush at the property. He later reviewed surveillance footage from a parking garage and noticed an unfamiliar man who had previously driven his wife home.

Three months later, the husband remotely activated the robot vacuum through its mobile app. He initially intended to use the device's audio function to communicate with his wife, but its live camera feed instead showed her getting intimate with another man.

He then activated the robot vacuum's recording function to save the footage as evidence.

The husband used the video in a civil lawsuit against his wife and the other man, alleging that they had violated his marital rights.

The court ruled in his favor and ordered the pair to jointly pay him NT$500,000 (nearly P1 million) in compensation.

His legal victory, however, came with an unexpected twist.

His wife filed a criminal complaint against him for recording her without her consent. The husband reportedly admitted to operating the robot vacuum and recording the footage but argued that he did so to gather evidence for his civil case.

The court rejected his defense, ruling that marital obligations do not override an individual's right to privacy. Although the robot vacuum reportedly issued an alert when its recording function was activated, there was no evidence that the woman knew she was being recorded or had consented to the footage being saved.

The husband was ultimately convicted of a privacy offense and sentenced to five months in prison. He was also fined NT$150,000 (around P296,000), according to SCMP.