Sneaky gadget reads deleted text messages

NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A New York company has created a gadget designed to allow concerned parents and nosy spouses to spy on cell phone text messages.

BrickHouse Security is marketing the machine -- which downloads current and deleted text messages from a phone's SIM card memory chip onto a personal computer -- for $149 on its Web site, the New York Post reported Monday.

"Have you ever wished you can spy on your wife, husband, teens or colleague's phone to see what they are up to?" the company asks visitors to its Web site. "Are they being suspicious when on their cell phone?"

The company says its product, which is small enough to fit in the palm of an adult's hand, it the perfect solution for those who feel the urge to snoop.

"About half of spouses find something bad on their partner's phone. They think they're deleting their messages, but they're wrong," said BrickHouse President Todd Morris, explaining that the card reader is the first of its kind that can read deleted text messages before they have been overwritten in the card's memory.

"Take the SIM card and crush it or cut it up with a wire cutter. That's the only way to guarantee it's gone," Morris said of unwanted texts.