There is nothing as unsettling as the feeling you’re being watched. For these victims of peeping Tom crimes, that weird feeling was unfortunately justified.
These people who were caught being peeping Toms went to great lengths to get a voyeuristic glimpse at an unsuspecting person. While some of them didn’t appear to have a certain motive for committing the creepy crimes, others had a very clear, sexual objective.
A Man Put A Camera In His Shoe For Upskirt Shots, And It Exploded
In June 2018, a Wisconsin man came up with an unconventional plan to take upskirt photos of unsuspecting women: install a camera in his shoe. The details surrounding the actual mechanics of the "shoe camera" are unclear, but whatever they were, the man decided to test out the camera before taking it out in public. The battery from the camera exploded, effectively burning his foot.
This accident turned out to be a blessing, as the man felt guilty for what he was about to do and opted to confess to a clergyman. He suggested the man turn himself in, and the clergyman escorted him to the police station.
A Man Drilled Holes In A Couple's Wall To Watch Them In Their Bedroom
In July 2017, Jerome Kennedy and his wife Ashley heard noises and saw a light shining through a pipe in the ceiling of their Pittsburgh, PA, home. The couple purchased a surveillance camera and installed it in their attic.
They went over the footage and discovered their neighbor, Robert Havrilla, walking around their attic carrying a power drill. Havrilla made a secret removable wall which allowed him to sneak into the home. He also drilled holes into the walls, and the couple believes it was so he could watch them in their bedroom.
The couple contacted the police, and Havrilla was arrested. He was charged with stalking and trespassing. Through his lawyers, Havrilla claimed he was in the couple's attic because it was connected to his home and he was doing renovations.
In May 2013, a man from Kobe, Japan, took peeping to a whole new level. Yasuomi Hirai regularly crawled through a drainage sewer with the intention of looking up women's skirts.
Hirai's hiding spot was near a woman's university. On at least one occasion, a woman reported seeing eyes below in the sewer and reported the incident; by the time police arrived, Hirai had already escaped.
Hirai eventually came under suspicion by police and was asked what he was doing hanging around the neighborhood. He confessed he skipped work to hang out in the sewers in the hopes of looking up women's skirts. He also admitted it was something he had done on several occasions. Hirai was subsequently arrested.
In December 2016, an unnamed man from Orem, UT, noticed a drone right outside of his bathroom window. The man got into his truck and chased after the drone. He was able to grab it once it landed in a church parking lot.
The man went through the photo card in the drone and found footage of people inside their homes. He also found videos of the couple who allegedly owned the drone.
The man took the footage to the local police department. From the footage, police were able to make out a license plate on a vehicle that belonged to the drone owners.
On December 4, 2016, before making an arrest, the Orem Police Department made a humorous Facebook post in which they let the drone owners know they were on to them, and they encouraged the voyeurs to turn themselves in.
Following that post, Terisha Lee Norviel was arrested and charged with voyeurism. In January 2017, her boyfriend, Aaron Dennis Foote, was also arrested for voyeurism for his part in the drone scheme. For Foote, this was not his first brush with the law; in 2008, he was arrested after he was caught spying on women at a tanning salon.
A Geek Squad Employee Recorded A Woman Taking A Shower
In March 2007, Natalie Fornaciari contacted Best Buy to send a computer technician to her Los Angeles, CA, home for computer repairs. Geek Squad employee Hao Kuo Chi was dispatched to the house.
At one point, Chi asked Fornaciari to use the restroom. He got back to work when Fornaciari's 22-year-old daughter, Sarah Vasquez, entered the bathroom to take a shower.
When Vasquez got out of the shower, she noticed a cell phone on her sink. The phone was in a leather case and featured a noticeable blinking red light. Vasquez left the bathroom and went to find her younger sister, 13-year-old Kelly Rocha, to ask her about the phone. When they returned to the bathroom, the phone was nowhere to be found.
Rocha found the phone in her bedroom later that same day. Concerned the phone was recording her, she removed the memory chip from the device. Rocha and Vasquez took the phone into a Verizon store to see if they could find out what was on it.
With the assistance of Verizon employees, the girls were able to view video footage of Chi setting up the camera in the bathroom. The sisters called their stepfather, who in turn called the police; Chi was arrested as he was still working on the computer in Fornaciari's home. The family sued Best Buy for negligent hiring, misrepresentation, and invasion of privacy.
On February 7, 2018, pastor Douglas Rivera drove to the Vanllee Hotel and Suites in Covina, CA. Once there, Rivera noticed a room with the curtains opened and looked in the window. The occupants were two Chinese teen tourists. After watching the girls, Rivera went back out to his car in the parking lot and masturbated.
Rivera figured out what room the girls were in and headed there. He knocked on the door. The girls were expecting their chaperone, so they opened it. Rivera then forced his way into the room where he sexually assaulted one of the girls before running out.
Hotel surveillance cameras caught all of this. His vehicle and tags were visible in the footage, and police were able to identify the perpetrator as Rivera. After being featured on the news, he went to the police and turned himself in on February 11, 2018. He was charged with sexual assault, indecent exposure, and burglary charges.
