M Badler

Spy Stuff - Spy - Spy Master - The Spy Mart - Marvin Badler



Posted: Tuesday, May 10, 2005

by M Badler
Executive Security Group, LLC

Sound detectors that can pick up noises through concrete: an X-Ray spray that allows the user to search mail for letter bombs or other devices: an umbrella that holds a microphone: hidden cameras built into smoke detectors, pictures, and even sprinkler heads in the ceiling.

The CIA? The KGB? Or maybe even James Bond? No, it's just Marvin Badler, your local neighborhood Detective/Security expert turned spy store proprietor. His new mission in life is making security products available to anyone with a need for his wares and the considerable advise born of over 30 years hair raising years in the detective and security business.

There's nothing cloak-and-dagger, though, about the spy mart, the name given to the neat Mom-and-Pop store front that severs as Badler's headquarters in New Jersey. The atmosphere is friendly, casual and helpful. Law enforcement officers browse through two-watt radios with a microphone in the earplug. Women on the lookout for MACE get Badler's personally selected brand, reinforced with hot pepper, along with instruction on its use an in-store video that goes into graphic details. All this and a cup of coffee and a slew of anecdotes from Badler, who usually entertains the spy mart audience while conducting a separate conversation on the phone that is perennially in his ear.

The first time customers enter the spy mart, Badler says, they are curious and a little hesitant. But that shyness wears off in short order when begin fiddling with the different products lining the racks. As can be expected, men are the typical customers, but women are not far behind.

We offer "toys for boys," says Badler. "Our customers become fascinated with the products we sell, and they usually find a way to integrate it into their lives, even when espionage is the last thing on their minds." One man was so entranced by the personal body alarm (that comes with a door guard, the alarm gives off an ear splitting 130 decibel shriek if anyone tries to enter a room undetected) that he picked up a few as gifts.

Badler knows what he's talking about. A former chief investigator for the New York City Department of Correction, Badler was also the head of security for Israel's El AL Airlines throughout the United States, a task that probably had more then a few surprises.

His stint as a professional bounty hunter had him working as an adviser to Robert DeNiro on "Midnight Run," a movie that had the actor playing the part. Aside from headlines in major newspapers worldwide for his bounty hunting escapades, Badler was profiled on the TV program "60 Minutes" for an escaped murderer he captured and later helped because he believed in the man's innocence.

Much of his product line makes sense for people not likely to be on anyone's hit list: Voice changers, for example, adjust the timber and pitch of a telephone voice at will so the gender of the person can be disguised. Women who are home alone like the idea of having "the man of the house" answer phone calls, but surprisingly, men use the device as well. "It's a great gimmick for a one-man office. A guy can answer his phone like a female receptionist, put the caller on hold, and resume the conversation as "himself." Makes a small operation look more impressive then it is," Badler smiles.

Mundane cans of furniture polish, beer, hair spray, even flat tire fixers hide valuables and blend in with the linen closet.

Badler has joined the computer world of electronics and his store is now on line. www.thespymartstores.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Anonymous 3 years 102 days ago.
no my friends think i am nuts because i think there is a store called Spy Mart. am i? this does not tell me!
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