Cops cuffed a 57-year-old Greenpoint man for allegedly spying on his female roommates, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors slapped the alleged peeping Tom with 36 counts of illegal surveillance for recording his unwitting housemates while in the bathroom and in their bedrooms without their consent.
“This defendant is accused of a shocking invasion of privacy for allegedly surreptitiously recording his roommates during private moments,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “We will now seek to hold him accountable for this disturbing violation and breach of trust.”
According to the District Attorney, the defendant, who is a photographer and superintendent of 184 Franklin St., the building where he lives, planted several recording devices between December of 2020 and January of 2021 in the bathroom and in the spare bedroom of his apartment, which he rented to a 24-year-old woman.
The DA’s investigation also uncovered that the defendant similarly spied on a 33-year-old female roommate in December of 2018.
The investigation was spurred when the 24-year-old woman grew suspicious that someone had been rifling through her belongings while she was out, prompting her to install her own hidden camera in the room.
While reviewing the first batch of footage from her hidden camera, she noticed an infrared light blinking in the corner of her room — that of a camera. When she reported this to police, they uncovered a hidden camera in the wall.
Police further searched the apartment and found numerous household objects that contained, or were capable of containing, a hidden camera — such as a vent-based recording device, a SONOS speaker, a can of air freshener, two cellphones, and an alarm clock.
The defendant had allegedly insisted to the victim that the clock, air freshener, and speaker remain in the bathroom, the victim told prosecutors.
A review of the suspect’s hard drives found that the bathroom cameras were used to record the 33-year-old roommate showering, changing, or doing other private activities, the District Attorney’s office said.
The defendant was ordered released without bail on July 21 and ordered to return to court on August 18.
