Tales of clandestine listening devices and surreptitious break-ins at Julie Couillard’s home have lent a flash of intrigue to the Maxime Bernier affair - but little more than that in the eyes of security experts.

They characterize her story of cloak-and-dagger dealings and undercover surveillance - whether by government or criminals - as improbable.

“I think it’s somebody’s 15 minutes of fame, listening to her interviews on the thing,” said Reid Morden, a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Added ex-Mountie Chris Mathers: “This whole thing stinks.”

Couillard told a French-language network that Bernier left sensitive government documents at her Montreal house last month and that private investigators recently uncovered evidence that listening devices had been planted and later removed from her bed’s boxspring.

She also claimed Bernier, who resigned from cabinet Monday, was aware of her past involvement with two men allegedly linked to biker gangs.

The possibility of hidden bugs became the talk of Parliament Hill, prompting Liberal MP Denis Coderre to ask if transcripts had been made of the secret recordings.

Mathers, now a security consultant, cast doubt on the notion someone would try to listen in on Bernier and Couillard’s pillow talk.

“I find her story remarkable. I’d like to see the evidence of a device being planted, or talk to the technicians, before I’d even begin to believe her.”

That aside, Mathers said a tiny video camera would be far more likely should someone with sinister motives wish to spy on the minister.

“They want to get him dressed like Batman or something, and they want that on video so they can use that to extort him. That’s what they want, so they’re going to install a video device and they’re going to catch him doing some kind of wacky sexual stuff,” he said.

“They wouldn’t put a wire in the boxspring, OK? The device wouldn’t be there. It doesn’t make sense.”

Bill Joynt, president of the Canadian Association of Private Investigators, was also doubtful.

“I guess it’s possible. But, I don’t know, it sounds a little fishy to me,” said Joynt, a senior member of Ontario-based firm The Investigators Group.

“All the stuff you see on TV where they’re in and out without anybody noticing it, it doesn’t happen too often, right? You have to be a pretty high-end expert to break into somebody’s place without them knowing that anybody’s been there.

“There’s not that many people around doing that are doing that kind of thing as far as I know.

“The spy boys can do all that stuff. Whether they would or not’s another question.”

Morden said CSIS would require hard evidence of a threat to national security before taking such an extraordinary step.

The documents Bernier left at Couillard’s home included classified briefing materials for the April NATO summit in Bucharest. Couillard said she returned the papers to the government after consulting a lawyer because holding on to them made her uncomfortable.

Morden noted the rules governing proper handling of classified federal material are routinely broken.

“I think you’d find that virtually every senior official in Ottawa has taken classified documents home,” he said.

“If you’d like the wheels of government to grind even more slowly, then you should insist that people never take these things anywhere.”

With that in mind, Mathers questioned Couillard’s sincerity.

“Government employees leave documents everywhere every day,” Mathers said.

“And all of a sudden she said that she was panicked by the fact that he left documents? Come on - she’s playing to the crowd.”