A Houston-area family said someone hacked into their baby monitor, shouted expletives and threatened to kidnap their 4-month-old child.
Nathan and Ellen Rigney were asleep Monday when a beeping sound woke them up just before midnight, the couple told KPRC-TV. The Rigneys' infant son, Topper, was asleep upstairs.
The noise was coming from the Nest baby monitor next to the couple's bed. Ellen Rigney said she thought it was a CO2 alert, but she then heard someone yelling "sexual expletives."
“Immediate reaction was that there’s somebody in here, somebody’s in my son’s room! How did they get in there?!” Ellen Rigney said.
The Rigneys jumped out of bed and turned on the light when a man's voice ordered them to turn the light off.
“Then [he] said 'I’m going to kidnap your baby. I’m in your baby’s room,'” Ellen Rigney said.
The parents rushed to Topper's room and found him safe. It was then that the Rigneys realized they had been hacked and needed to disconnect the Wi-Fi as soon as possible.
The couple said they called police, filed a report and notified the camera manufacturer. The Harris County Sheriff's Office is now investigating the incident. The Rigneys no longer use the Nest baby monitor.
Nest said in a statement to NBC News that the company is aware of incidents of customers' accounts being hacked, reported WBAP-TV.
"We are proactively alerting affected customers to reset their passwords and set up two-factor authentication, which adds another layer of account security. Customers can reach out to Nest customer support with questions or report anything suspicious to security@nest.com," the statement said.
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