A mysterious "recording device" has been spotted on a quiet street in Caerphilly borough. The equipment, which appears to have a microphone attached to it, was discovered by locals of Gwesty Close in Croespenmaen, Crumlin on Monday afternoon.
Resident Mark Swain said the object was "bizarre" and that council workers told him it was nothing to do with the local authority before removing it on Tuesday morning. The 51-year-old said: "I work in security at the council and I have never seen anything like it. I rang the highways department up and they said they don't know what it is.
"They came here this morning (Tuesday) and said it is obviously recording something. They said it was an invasion of privacy and that they would remove it if the environmental health department didn't know about it."
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Mark said he has a garden with a six-foot fence and noticed a man in a white shirt erecting the device at about 2pm on Monday. He said he asked neighbours if they knew what it is, but nobody had any clue. He described its appearance as looking like a two-foot squared plastic suitcase with a badminton shuttlecock-shaped microphone coming out of it.
"It just doesn't make sense", he said. "We're not on a main road, this is a small, quiet rural close with just a few cars coming in and out. We have all been talking about it in a group chat and nobody can work out what it is being used for."
At around 11am on Tuesday, Mark said highways came back to the street and removed the object. In December 2022, a similar device was removed from a street in Nottingham. At the time, a spokesman for the council said the local authority was not aware of why the equipment was installed and would be monitoring the situation. Caerphilly County Borough Council has been approached for comment.
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