Family says hackers accessed a Ring camera in their 8-year-old daughter’s room

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - It’s chilling video from inside a children’s room in one Desoto County home.

The Ring camera was only up for four days in the girls’ room before the family says someone found a way to manipulate it, turning the security device into a room of horror.

“I did a lot of research on these before I got them. You know, I really felt like it was safe,” said Ashley LeMay.

The camera was supposed to add a level of protection, a way for LeMay to keep an eye on her three daughters and seem close by while working her overnight nurse shifts.

The Ring camera was a Black Friday deal and came with a recommendation from another mom.

“She had one and she was like watching her kids on her phone and I was like ‘oh you can actually speak to them. That’s really neat',” said LeMay.

Four days after the camera went up 8-year-old Alyssa heard something strange coming from her room.

“First, what happened I was in the hallway I thought it was my sister because I hear music. It’s like ‘tiptoe through the window.’ So I come upstairs and I hear some banging noise and I am like ‘who is that’,” she said.

When they played back the Ring video recording, her parents heard the alarming encounter Alyssa had with a man watching her room.

“I watched the video and I mean my heart just like... I didn’t even get to the end where she is screaming ‘mommy, mommy’ before I like ran inside,” said LeMay.

LeMay’s husband was home at the time watching the girls as she ran a quick errand.

The mysterious voice taunted her 8-year-old with music and encouraged destructive behavior before her dad came in the room ending the terror.

“They could have watched them sleeping, changing. I mean they could have seen all kinds of things,” she said. “Honestly, my gut it makes me feel like it’s either somebody who knows us or somebody who is very close by.”

The camera now sits on the counter disconnected, waiting to be returned.

LeMay admits she had not set up the two-factor authentication for the Ring account, which would have added another level of protection against potential hackers. The family has taken other security precautions since the incident, including setting their WiFi so it is no longer visible to others.

LeMay has been in contact with Ring. The company told the mother safety and security is their number one priority as they investigate.

A Ring spokesperson gave us a statement about the incident, saying it wasn’t the result of a breach of Ring’s security.

"Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously. While we are still investigating this issue and are taking appropriate steps to protect our devices based on our investigation, we are able to confirm this incident is in no way related to a breach or compromise of Ring’s security.

Due to the fact that customers often use the same username and password for their various accounts and subscriptions, bad actors often re-use credentials stolen or leaked from one service on other services. As a precaution, we highly and openly encourage all Ring users to enable two-factor authentication on their Ring account, add Shared Users (instead of sharing login credentials), use strong passwords, and regularly change their passwords."