Quote:ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – Two Albuquerque Public Schools employees are suing the district, saying their bosses hired private investigators to plant recording devices in their office.

“It’s just shocking to me that APS would use public money to surveil employees,” attorney Antonia Roybal-Mack said.

Yet, that’s what her clients are alleging in an invasion of privacy lawsuit that claims the district hired a private investigator to plant recording devices in their office in the Testing Services Center.

The lawsuit says one of the employees, Bobbie Gallegos, noticed something was wrong when she found white flakes on her desk, looked up and saw an out-of-place ceiling tile, so she grabbed a ladder to fix it and found that there were cameras over her desk.

She also found an audio recording device under her desk. Gallegos then told a supervisor who reportedly “appeared nervous” and tried to keep the two employees away from their desks.

An APS invoice shows more than $1,000 paid to Robert Caswell Investigation Inc. for 11-and-a-half investigative hours worked, plus camera rental charges.

View the invoice >>

“They weren’t even shy about what they put on the invoice… Invoiced for ‘surveillance of Bobbie Gallegos.'” Roybal-Mack said.

Gallegos found the recorders more than a month after the date on that invoice.

However, Roybal-Mack says it’s what happened after the lawsuit was filed two weeks ago that’s caused more anguish for her clients.

“Ms. Gallegos was told, you know, she got on a ladder to pull everything out of the ceiling. And, she was told, ‘If you like being on a ladder so much we will move you to be a custodian.'”

Roybal-Mack says Gallegos will keep working for the district as a Kennedy Middle School custodian because she needs to feed her family.

When asked why the district was recording the employees, and how often it hires investigators to spy on workers, APS did not wish to comment.

The attorney thinks the supervisor wanted to catch Gallegos doing something wrong to fire her — and replace her with someone else.

The second employee in the lawsuit shared an office with Gallegos and feels her privacy was invaded.