tape recorderNot unlike many divorced or divorcing couples who can't afford to move out of the house right away, Wayne Cripe and his estranged wife Suzanne still live together in their house in Raccoon, Pennsylvania. They have separate bedrooms, and Suzanne even has a boyfriend. And Wayne was, generally speaking, pretty cool about the whole thing, but just kind of minded that he could overhear his soon-to-be ex-wife getting it on in her bedroom with said boyfriend.

So Wayne decided to put a listening device under Suzanne's bed that fed to a portable transmitter. That way, Wayne would be able to listen to his little radio and hear whether or not they were getting busy, and whether or not the coast was clear for him to go home.

I don't know, nothing about this sounds perverted (even though it is in Beaver County, tee hee) or malicious -- just sounds like your classic case of a yet-to-be divorced man who's trying to figure out if his wife is having sex with her boyfriend so he knows whether or not it's cool to walk into the house.

In a sick way, it's almost sweet. He wasn't really causing any harm, he just wanted to give his wife privacy, and he wanted to not hear her moan and groan while some dude rails her under his own roof.

Unfortunately, the law doesn't exactly see things as I do. It's not exactly legal to put a listening device under someone's bed, and Wayne's been charged with a misdemeanor for invasion of privacy, and a felony charge of intercepting communications without the person's knowledge. Oof.

Poor Wayne. I feel sorry for the guy. I can't help it -- I know what he did was illegal and wrong, but so is sneaking Twizzlers into a movie theater. Let's cut the guy some slack. Living with the wife you're separated from who has a boyfriend sounds terrible. The heartache must be constant. And then to have to overhear her being, um, pleasured? If that were me, I'd sooner surgically remove my own heart with a grapefruit knife than sit there and listen to that.

They say all's fair in love and war, so hopefully Wayne will get a break, if not a new place to call home.

Have you ever lived under the same roof as your ex?

 

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