Even back in [[The Mall Days]] we had crappy security cams for the shop, but we upgraded to Simplisafe for our alarm system and surveillance as we moved to the [[Perkins - MG HQ & Grind Global]] location. Simplisafe wasn't the best, but it was far superior to the failed security we experienced in the early days. Sometimes we had connectivity issues, often times with the outdoor camera, but overall it got the job done and kept us secure. We were able to easily log in to the system's back end, watch and listen to any room in the shop. It was a nice convenience if we needed to go back and replay what we told a customer or to see what happened with an order. Along the way, I discovered Ernest had been watching me through the Simplisafe video system since he would mention things that I had said or even call me and say "I saw you talking to yourself on the cameras, etc." I have no idea how long he'd been watching me, but it could have been ever since we had the system installed. I always got a creepy "voyeur" vibe when he wasn't physically at the shop. I knew he was watching, or at least, I became paranoid that he was after so many synchronicities... For a long time, [[Ernest]] and I were using Ring Central for our phone service at the shop. This system worked great, but I discovered we were being monitored (by someone other than ourselves) in mid 2021 after we lost text service due to one of my graphics being flagged for having a gun in the imagery; as well, I had sent a graphic to a customer for review containing a cannabis leaf, which I'm sure contributed to the monitoring. We had call recording turned on by default so that we could review calls with customers in case there was ever a dispute, but I wasn't aware that all of our SMS (and possibly other traffic) was being routed through Ring Central for processing of some sort until around July. It didn't take much for me to get our phone service back in tact since we were a legitimate business and weren't selling guns or drugs (or so I thought), but it let me know that the laws had changed in some way; that we were under heavy surveillance without any notification. I began to be on guard since this moment and shifted the majority of graphic review and text-based customer communication to email since we'd never had a problem with that. While the monitoring technically started in 2021 with Ring Central, the bulk of it seemed to be happening in 2022. I kept feeling as if someone was watching me work on my computer during the day, and even my phone at times. I didn't have any viruses or malware, but my spidey senses were tingling all the time, probably because I knew that Ernest was watching me through the cameras in the shop, but it felt like something more. Looking back, this could have just been Ernest drugging me (during [[The Change]]) but I'm not entirely sure. Technologically, I encountered some REALLY crazy things during early 2022, shortly after [[Al]] had asked to but some coke from Ernest. Someone was messing with my Bluetooth connections to my small Google speaker that sat next to me at the front desk: changing songs, stopping playback, etc. when I'd play certain music involving solfeggio frequencies, and sometimes randomly (it seemed). I never saw disconnections between my devices so I knew this had to be a MITM (man in the middle attack) of some sort, but could never locate the source. This sketched me out pretty bad since all of my communication and listening was wireless, as is most people's these days. I began to be more paranoid but at the same time thought "this is impossible..." One of the strangest things was on days that [[Sterling]] would come to the shop it seemed as if Bluetooth had been going haywire and all of the weird technological behavior would stop when he arrived. It was totally bizarre and left me with an uneasy feeling almost as if he had something to do with the monitoring. Did he? I even received an email about my "Otter AI" account changes, which I'd never signed up for in the past. Otter AI is used for chat and AI transcription, so this sent up red flags for me. I felt like someone was listening to my every word in some way. Could they have installed this on my devices without me knowing? I couldn't be sure of anything. On my computer, there was a time where I noticed a vulnerability that had been there for an undetermined length of time, a memory leak or TPM issue of some sort, perhaps core isolation? Either way, I noticed that there was some sort of hacked firmware on my computer; there was no telling what it was or wasn't transmitting since it was at the CPU/RAM level. I did some research and it looked like this type of firmware was Chinese manufactured, but that doesn't mean anything since all tech is made in China. I did have a brief moment of freaking out thinking that I was being hacked, but looking back, it was probably just another tactic by this gang of demons, another trick to make me think I was going crazy. What made me think that my phone wasn't secure was that one day, [[Sam]] came into the shop talking about things I had written in my phone the night prior in my personal notes. As well, he even mentioned things I'd privately talked to my wife about while we were in bed. Was he one of the people monitoring me too? If so, that would mean that him, Ernest and Sterling were all in on this together, which would be unsurprising to say the least. After all, Sam had called Sterling "fam" even thought I know they aren't blood related. Another day, I noticed that there were weird IP addresses at weird geo-locations attacking our network. I had a very strong Unifi setup in place that I managed so I know that was the only thing stopping them, but the weirdest part is I kept feeling like Sam was a part of this attack somehow. I know it's crazy, but the geo-location data showed water sources all over the world. Why were we getting slammed with attacks out the blue? Were these actual attacks or was it one of the gang members messing with me again? I didn't have answers, all I know is I took screenshots and thanked God that I had heavy security and firewalls on our IT hardware. A short while later, Comcast had to come out to replace our Xfinity gateway since it appeared as if a hack attack had taken it out. The technician confirmed this was a possibility as he hadn't seen anything like this before. To this day, I don't know what was really an attack or just another tactic to make me feel as if I was losing my mind. Since then, I started checking IP addresses that were passing through my DNS and noticed a lot of military and government IPs, specifically DoD related. This was strange to me but there wasn't anything I could do since it seemed like they were using our system as a "pass through" of sorts. Were they? Was I just crazy? I'll never know, but I took screenshots for verification of sanity. At another time, I told Ernest I felt like I was being watched. I told him I felt like someone was following me or watching me. He didn't seem to take it too seriously, but I did notice some strange things and similar types of people everywhere I went. I knew I was becoming paranoid from all that had taken place, but was I? Looking back, I realize that the person monitoring me was him and of course he wanted me to appear crazy so I could take the fall for any [[Bad Business]] that could surface. How could I have been so dumb?