Meet Mac, the dog who can sniff out hidden cameras

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — This week, investigators in Cabarrus County uncovered evidence against a man accused of hiding devices and secret peeping on underage victims. One of those investigators was a five-year-old English Labrador who’s specially trained to find secret items.

“We use Mac on most of our ICAT cases, which are Internet Crimes against Children,” Cabarrus County Sgt. Travis Coley said.

This week, Mac helped find nearly 40 electronic devices hidden in a home, leading to dozens of charges against a Harrisburg man accused of distributing child sexual abuse material.

“That case kind of involved a lot of hidden devices. We found a set of glasses in the closet that had a hidden camera in it, something that would be kind of inconspicuous to everybody else,” Coley said.

Coley is Mac’s handler, and he says he’s able to find devices even the best detective may miss.

“We know he works, we’ve seen it work, so it gives you the confidence that you didn’t leave evidence behind,” Coley told Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz.

Mac can do it because he’s trained to sniff out a specific chemical sprayed on electronic devices during manufacturing.

“It’s called triphenylphosphate oxide, TPPO for short,” Coley said.

We saw his nose at work in a training demonstration. Coley hid three small devices in a break room, and Mac found every single one.

“It’s just like the coolest partner ever. He’s always excited to come to work, he bounds around, runs round, greets everybody, because everybody’s going to tell him he’s a good boy, and he’s the coolest thing in the world,” Coley said.

Mac is one of only 150 police K-9s in the country with this skill.

The man charged in the Harrisburg case, Christopher Brownstead, is accused of using a secret camera to spy on guests at his Airbnb bathroom, along with making child sex abuse material by spying on kids in parks and neighborhoods. Authorities said they expect more details to come out of this investigation.

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