COVINGTON — What a Covington official thought was a bug turned out to be a bug without a bite.

        Covington Housing Development Director Howard Hodge believed he had discovered a listening device or miniature camera hidden in the ceiling of his City Hall office.

        “I've got plenty of enemies,” Mr. Hodge said Friday. “I'm shocked. I had several people in the building who expressed concern that things I said in private were being repeated elsewhere, so I started to look around and I found it.”

        After he discovered the device about two weeks ago, Mr. Hodge gave it to his lawyer, Steve Wolnitzek.

        Mr. Wolnitzek said he sent the device to a private investigator in Cincinnati, who determined it was a miniature camera. It was then sent to Covington police.

        But Friday afternoon, Lt. Col. Bill Dorsey of the Covington Police Department issued a statement saying that the “bugging device” is an “inoperative electronic photo device of unknown origin.”

        “It doesn't work,” Col. Dorsey said. “It's some kind of electronic camera device, but it needs to be hooked up to a power source or a transmitter to work, and when it was found it wasn't hooked up to anything.

        “And this particular device, even when it's hooked up to a power source, it still does not work.”

        Col. Dorsey said it is not illegal to possess or distribute the device. He said the investigation is continuing.

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