So how did the feds eavesdrop on Gov. Blagojevich anyway?
Phone taps, hidden listening devices ... it's all very "Mission Impossible," and it left us very curious about what the tech actually looks like.
NBC Chicago's Charlie Wojciechowski went to a local private investigator to find out more about the toys that the feds may have used to build their case against the governor.
Perry Myers has been a private investigator for more than 30 years, and also sells surveillance tools through a chain of U-Spy shops in Illinois and Florida.
"If I was in the FBI's shoes, I would use a small recorder, something that could be disguised ... (like) a pen recorder," Myers said, showing off a slightly larger than usual ink pen that hides a microphone and tiny recorder.
Looking at the device, it could probably pass for a USB drive in a pen. Even if you pull the top off, all that's visible is a standard USB plug, and similarly shaped pen drives have become very common.
"It's less expensive, and the technology is getting better and better. It's more available to anyone now," Myers said.
There are cameras that look like buttons, even a video camera, complete with its own recorder, that's so small it can fit in a pack of gum.
While the tech to spy on someone has gotten cheaper -- all of what Perry showed us was less than $1,000, and much of it was less than $100 -- anti-spy tools are just as advanced.
A countermeasures set includes everything the paranoid person needs to test their environment for hidden cameras, wiretaps, audio recorders, even infrared data transmissions.
Perhaps that's just the stocking stuffer Blago's been hoping for.
