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Things got creepier when he insisted that the couple give him the password for their new surveillance system so that he could “troubleshoot” when necessary.
It gets worse: They later discovered that the four exterior cameras that he installed fed directly into their DVR but not the one that he put in their daughter’s room.
It turns out that Nathan Shane Follis was accused of collecting child pornography in Missouri.
He’d been using an alias in New Jersey.
The River Vale father said he found the installer through the “Thumbtack” app, which is something of a reverse Angie’s List.
The next thing he knew, “Nathan O’Reilly” of “Sentience Security Solutions” had contacted him.
“We go back and forth via text within the app,” the father told Daily Voice. “Ultimately we reach an agreement.
“He comes and installs the system: 5 cameras. 4 exterior -- and one interior in my daughter’s playroom,” the River Vale dad said. “At the end he sets us up with a phone app for the cameras and wants my password to get in to ‘troubleshoot.’
"I refuse.”
Several months later, the dad bought new cell phones for himself and his wife. Both found themselves booted from the security app. They couldn’t back in.
“I text the issue to Nathan,” the father said. “He gets very aggressive about it. He says that this is exactly why he needed my password and that he would now have to come to my house and open every camera individually in order to reset my password.”
The dad was having none of that. He figured he’d go directly to the manufacturer. He could still watch the surveillance images on his TV, so he wasn’t in any rush.
One night last May, his wife woke him around 4 a.m. after hearing glass break.
The father checked the entire house – nothing. He played the interior camera and heard what sounded like banging on the front door. No images were recorded, however.
Taking no chances, he consulted law enforcement -- and learned that security camera installers have been caught burglarizing homes and deleting the surveillance footage.
After discovering the contractor’s real name, the dad did a quick search. He discovered that Follis was awaiting trial in Missouri on child porn charges.
The father alerted local authorities, who sent cybercrime investigators to the house to see what they could find out.
He also hired an independent security expert with law enforcement experience.
“He said that he’d been doing this for a very long time and could not figure out what Follis did,” the father said. “We had five cameras in our house but the camera in the playroom did not appear to be connected to our DVR – but was still feeding into the TV.”
No explanation was ever found.
The father eventually got hold of Follis, who, he said, claimed that he was just a witness in the Missouri case, which he said had been dismissed.
The dad then called authorities in Missouri. He learned that Follis was the primary defendant in an upcoming trial on charges of possessing more than 20 child pornography images/videos.
“He left Missouri and went to New Jersey to install camera systems in people's homes and businesses while pending trial for child porn," the father said, "all under an alias so that he could not be detected.”
“I gathered screenshots of our conversations, of him advertising with a fake name and gave them all to the prosecutor in Missouri,” he said.
A judge there, in turn, revoked Follis’s bail just before last Memorial Day weekend.
Follis was later returned to Missouri.
After being released, he contacted the River Vale dad.
“He says he understands why I made the report,” the father told Daily Voice. “He admitted to basically everything. Offered me money not to take any further action against him. It was crazy.”
Follis originally was arrested in March 2012 for child porn possession in St. Louis, where records show he was living at the time.
He became a fugitive while the case was pending and was caught in Tavares, FL in November 2015.
Before long, he was on the run again.
Follis ultimately pleaded guilty to the child porn charges last June 29 and received a 10-year suspended sentence.
The company that Follis worked for also paid to have the camera system that he installed in the River Vale family’s home removed and a new one put in by the contractor of the couple’s choice.
Authorities urge customers to check with the state Division of Consumer Affairs before hiring any contractors.
“My concern is how many people have systems in their homes installed by this guy and they don’t know his situation” the River Vavle dad said. “I wonder if there is a way to run a story on this so that anyone who used these guys are aware.”
Done.
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