Coat Hooks with Hidden Cameras?

BOSTON, MA --Coat hooks with cameras?

It's the latest "surveillance" device being used by peeping Toms to view people, mostly women, in public bathrooms, their own bedrooms and anywhere else they can film an unsuspecting victim in a compromising position.

Last year, Florida police issued a statement saying that similar devices were found hidden in women's restrooms across the state. At first the white hook seems normal, but a closer look reveals these hooks contain a hidden camera inside the hook.

A motion-sensitive, small camera films people through a tiny hole on the front of the hook. These hooks can be purchased as "home surveillance device" at online retailers for as low as $13.

Last September, a 32-year-old Cambridge man was charged with secretly videotaping at least 15 women —several of whom were his roommates — in their bedrooms, bathrooms and while they were having sex, according to Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Teddy Browar-Jarus, 32, of Cambridge, was arraigned Sept. 9 in Middlesex Superior Court and charged with 26 counts of secretly recording an unsuspecting nude person, 11 counts of willful recording of oral communication, and one count of attempting to video record an unsuspecting person in a state of nudity.

In 2015, Browar-Jarus' former roommate of the defendant awoke hearing an unfamiliar beeping sound. When she approached the bookshelf in her bedroom she allegedly found a cell phone with its camera facing the bed with the name “Teddy” on the home screen, according to the DA's Office.

Authorities executed a search warrant on the defendant’s bedroom where police allegedly found multiple recording devices, including a laptop computer and a hook camera, a camera that is similar in appearance to a plastic hook used to hang towels or robes in a bathroom, but with a hidden camera inside.

A forensic search of the defendant’s laptop resulted in the alleged discovery of dozens of videos of women in a state of undress; some in the bathroom, others engaged in sexual activity, as well as several female roommates in various state of undress in their own bedrooms, Ryan said.

Many videos also included the recording of conversations. The investigation allegedly showed that the hook camera had been installed in the bathrooms of two Somerville apartments to record women entering and exiting the shower. The police also located videos created through the use of smart phones and a laptop computer.

The Somerville police were able to identify twelve women depicted in the videos who were recorded in Middlesex County, in addition to the reporting party, Ryan said. All women stated that they had not given permission for, nor did they have knowledge of, the video and audio recordings. The videos were allegedly taken in the years 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Browar-Jarus' next court date is June 13 for a final conference before his July 11 trial in Middlesex Superior court.

Courtesy photo Amazon.com.