This is very creepy, but I feel like the news story, at the very least, unnecessarily scares people. It also puts ideas into criminal's minds that wouldn't have been there in the first place if they hadn't heard this report.

I'm about to say something that I think will be pretty unpopular BUT... how necessary are baby monitors anyway? Unless a person is living in a huge McMansion or has a significant hearing loss, we will be able to hear our babies. We are genetically programmed to do so. It's big business keeping our children "safe" and monitors perpetuate the myth that if we aren't able to hear our babies every single sound then something bad might happen. It's ridiculous. If we relied on our good ol' ears, people wouldn't be in a panic about this news item.

I would agree with mamamamaqc...up to a point. If only I hadn't had at least two instances where I have been alerted to my son's vomiting and choking which I was NOT actually able to hear without the monitor because he doesn't do those things super-loudly...

Hide Yo Wife! Hide Yo Kids!

Honestly, I don't think that very many people are spending their time driving around neighborhoods to watch your babies sleep. Maybe just newscasters.

theacademy that was hilarious and appropriate. I'm popping over to youtube now....

I'm about as horrified as the parents they showed, and I don't even have a baby monitor! That is AWFUL.

My in-laws had a baby monitor when their kids were little. They live in a very small town, and often left their monitor on... only to find out later that their neighbors inadvertently heard them being intimate.... on several occasions.

I need a baby monitor- we have a tall house and I work from home, in the basement. There are lots times when I am not in earshot of my baby. A monitor allows me to work while she sleeps, but I can get to her quickly when needed. I don't use it when I am 1 room away, but I do if I'm 2 floors away...

:/ This is rather non-news to me. I heard about it long before buying a baby monitor. It just doesn’t seem like much of a threat. I’m with theacadamy - I highly doubt that people are tuning into our frequency to hear our off-key rendition of “baby beluga.” I suppose we should take care to not read our bank account numbers out loud in the nursery, though… since we do that so often… We should probably black out all our homes windows, too, because someone could potentially be watching us there, too!!!

Oohh theacademy, you just made my day. My husband plays that video at least once a day and giggles like a school girl every. time.

OK, it's creepy, but really - how widespread is this? And for goodness sakes, what would anyone do with the information? Look, there's a baby sleeping! Oh my, not sleeping! Well, look she's out of the crib! I find it very unbelievable that criminals are using it to scope a house. They can't see anything but the crib. It's not like the monitors scan the house stopping on every valuable item to allow an accurate appraisal.

I suppose that is kind of creepy. I have never used one of the video monitors, but we had a traditional one with my second daughter. Our old house was small, but had these thick plaster walls and solid wood doors, and you couldn't hear a thing through them. One night we heard one of our neighbors reading a bedtime story on it, so I suppose it's possible that they also heard us reading bedtime stories on theirs. But I changed the frequency, and it never happened again.

Our monitor broke, and we haven't bothered to replace it (and our third child is 14 months now). We moved and this house is bigger, but more open and the doors are not as solid, so it's easier to hear. Unless you are in the basement, but laundry is usually a one-man job and it's not like we have time to play pool right now anyway.

We lived in an old house with thick walls when my son was an infant so no we could not really hear him right away. Also he was not a deep sleeper. The ability to check on him when he was gurgling and rolling in his sleep, without waking him up, was priceless. The minute he heard me creaking down the hallway it was over.

Disclaimer: I am the Director of Products for ImogenStudio (www.imogenstudio.com), the maker of the Bambino. The Bambino is a wireless internet baby camera that lets you remotely see and hear your baby from your computer or iPhone.

Most of the new baby monitor models from major brands that has come out within the last 12-18 months are of the digital variety, which does not have this issue. So if privacy is a concern, as it should be, look for the newer models with digital wireless transmission. One tell-tale sign is that if the model requires you to pair cameras to the monitor (like you do a bluetooth headset) than it's one of the new digital models, if it has preset channels that you set your camera and monitors to, than it's an old, insecure, analog model. The Bambino is an example of a monitor with the new secure digital wireless technology and you can find it here.