Authorities found cameras disguised as wall-mounted coat hooks in at least three public bathrooms in and around the Florida Keys, according to a new report.
Over the last week the hidden devices were discovered in the women’s room of a Circle K outlet, the girls’ room in a park at Anne’s Beach, and the women’s room at Harry Harris Park, police said this week.
“These are very small cameras that can be mounted in many locations and hidden in many seemingly every-day items,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement reported by the Sun-Sentinel. “If you find anything suspicious you think might contain a hidden camera, don’t touch it. Call us right away and we will respond.”
The sheriff went on to say the devices were set to record video when a motion detection device was triggered. The cameras are like many that can be bought on line for home security, Ramsay said.
Ramsay also noted that operators of both public and private bathroom facilities have been urged to search for similar devices to protect the sexual privacy of their customers.
It was not reported who found the first camera but authorities are urging the public to contact them if they have any information about them. Anyone with info can call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office at 305-289-2351.
The discovery comes on the heels of two other nearby incidents of men using cameras to record women in Broward County. In February of this year a man was arrested in Coconut Creek, Florida for using his cell phone to record a women who was getting out of a shower and on March 25 of last year another man was arrested for using his cell phone in a girl’s fitting room in a bathing suit store in Davie, Florida.
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