Barry K asked:

Hey ok well I’m in kind of a tough situation. A few years ago I bought, a pet anaconda from this guy I came in contact with in Peru. His snake had babies and he was trying to sell them. So I had it imported to the US. Well it got much bigger over the years and it’s normal habitat is very large. So, I went on vacation about a month ago for a couple of weeks, and couldn’t take the habitat with me. I knew I couldn’t leave him home alone for that long because he wouldn’t survive. So I decided to take him with me and not keep him in his normal habitat. I got a smaller more portable one. So I made reservations at the Motel 6. When I got there they freaked out about my snake even though they said they allowed pets when I reserved my room. So they wouldn’t let me bring the snake into the room. I took him back to the car, but knew I couldn’t leave him there for very long. So I managed to sneak him into the room, and hide him in the bathroom. So my problem is that the stupid maid decided to clean my room while I was out sightseeing. Even though I put a sign on the door to the bathroom to keep out I guess she still went in. Well when I came back and realized what happened I freaked out and got my snake out of there and left. So since she has turned up missing there have been detectives that have questioned me about her disappearance since they found her DNA in the bathroom of my hotel room. My question is this if they ever find out that it was my snake what if any charges could I face? I mean in a way she was trespassing when I had a sign on the door that said stay out

John W asked:

Our current AuPair is due to return home. We trust her completely but after reaching the two year max on her visa (J-1) she will return to Peru in late July. We will get another AuPair soon. Child abuse and simple negligence is a concern each time we get a new person to watch the children (We have had two nannies and our current AuPair). We are considering installing cameras in our house. A second question follows, should we tell the employee they may be being observed? Of course we recognize that it would clearly give greater respect for their right to privacy. However any calculated mistreatment could simply happen off camera.

We have heard of systems where you can access live views of your home over a secure internet connection. We have no intention of placing cameras anywhere but the high use areas (kitchen, children’s rooms and a playroom). We have no intention of taping/recording anything.