Pics or it didn't happen. :)

Creepy!

Google street view FTW

You try a little too hard to catch a TP thief and you're labeled a perv for life. What a country!

Hey, who doesn't like a little voyeurism with their tapas?

Huh. I was under the impression that pretty much the only place you COULDN'T be legally filmed without your consent was on your own private property. Guess I don't know what I'm talking about.

Toilet cameras are for research purposes only.

How blatantly obvious would the camera have had to be sticking out of the roof tiles for someone to actually notice? I'm thinking 1980's VHS cassette sized.

pshh, ceiling. Amateur. Set it up on the floor tiles. You get better material there.

@DashTheHand: I was wondering this too, I'd like to see a picture of the setup at least. You know, so I don't make the same mistake(s).

OK, I'm cool with cameras. I have four set up in my house. But I've said more than once that I will never put one in my bathroom. That's just so weird and wrong. Ewwwwww.

@DashTheHand: It wouldn't take much, just a bit of reflection if the light hit it the right way.

I did some work for a client once that had pinhole cameras in the ceiling tiles above some of the upper management desks. I guess they must have had a problem with people stealing from the management. I could look at the monitor, and know exactly whose desks the cameras were pointed at, but I could not for the life of me see the cameras in the ceiling tile (although I didn't just stand there and stare for long, lest they thought I was casing the joint, heh).

he's a scat man.....

@Radi0logy: Yeah, but there's an except for restrooms, and the inside of changing rooms, for obvious reasons.

@Radi0logy: You cannot be legally filmed without your consent if you are somewhere without the expectation of privacy. Bathrooms have that expectation of privacy, just like dressing rooms, your house, and tinted limos.

I guess you could say:
the owner is in hot water over this...
the owner got burnt...
the bottomless items are off the menu...

That seems like a lot of effort for a top-down shot. I mean, I know that perversions are by their very nature, perverted, but this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Call me paranoid but I always check for cameras in restrooms and changing rooms. And this article just makes that paranoia so much worse.

I am in the surveillance business, not only do I sell it I also install it. This guy has got to be stupid. The way they make hidden cameras these days is scary. It can be placed in emergancy lights, ceiling speakers, even smoke detectors. The views can range from side angle to down view. All these can be purchased for very inexpensive and installed for inexpensive as well if you can do it yourself. I personally hate when people like this give my industry a bad name and give my busineess a bad name too. We work hard to give people protection and this guy and others like him ruin it. Hope they fry him. Hope he has to register as a sex offender.

@jfielder23: Well I understand the logic of it, but how are stores monitored for shoplifters? And I'm pretty sure that I've been in changing rooms that had signs alerting me to being monitored

@Radi0logy: Exactly. You can be filmed in dressing rooms, but there is usually a sign on the mirror or something, letting you know that it is happening. Most stores hire women to watch the women's dressing rooms and men to watch men.

@LegoMan322: deebeedeebeedeep doh dohdohdoh

So, anyone eaten there and used the restroom? Are they clean?

I've seen a lot of restrooms in my day and some of them look like someone dropped their pants, grabbed their ankles, and did an anal impression of a water sprinkler. If it were my joint, I'd like to find out who's doing that crap.

@Radi0logy: Monitored on the way in and out of the changing room, not inside.

I used to work retail loss prevention and cameras are not put in the dressing rooms. Basically, someone is watching what you bring in and what you take out. They also look for anything suspicious when you're on your way out if you don't take all of the items with you.

Its certainly a lot cheaper to let a few shoplifters slip by than it is to pay out a claim for violation of privacy.

@Radi0logy: monitored != filmed by a camera. It could be as simple as an associate is in the area to make sure that the same items come out as go in, or a camera doing the same. But not recording actually INSIDE the changing room. :)

@Jabberkaty:

You're assuming the camera is there for perverted reasons, in which case, I would agree with you. But to me, the ceiling angle suggests surveillance rather than voyeurism. There are much better camera positions if he's looking for juicy material. (No pun intended.)

@Applekid:

That is one horrendous mental image you just gave me there.

@Darrone: I said single-ply only!

@Applekid: There's plenty of diarrhea bandits out there.

@LegoMan322: NO! You just ruined that song for me! :(

Any way we could get Lifehacker to do a "how to put a camera in the bathroom and watch it like a perv" piece?

I find this guy's ideas intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to his newsletter.

@Applekid: The nausea you are personally responsible for after that comment may go a long way toward legalization of medical marijuana.

For that, I thank you.

@joe18521: "I'd like to find out who's doing that crap."

That PUN is full of win! Was it intentional?

@Applekid: Yeah! Can you imagine a heavy flow day? Eww!

Where's the ceiling cat picture?

@yoni242: I doubt those tiny cameras shoot in HD.

@yoni242: Just out of curiosity, are your customers typically private businesses, or are you installing those invasive, unconstitutional cameras the government uses to spy on us (red light cameras, etc)?

For the sake of the legitimacy of your moral outrage, I hope it is not the latter.

@Gokuhouse: Ceiling cat is watching you poo.

There was a guy here who got busted for doing that in a tanning salon. One of the employees was doing homework on the computer and found pictures. The guy got busted under a child pornography charge because some of the girls he filmed were under 17.

How much of an idiot do you have to be to keep the pictures on a computer at the same place you're perpetrating, that other people have access to?

@funnymonkey: No, you CANNOT be filmed in a dressing room. Monitoring =/= filming. They can film the outside, but not the inside.

@Rhayader: LOL, paranoid much? The roadways, were red light cameras are, are public property.

@yoni242: So you are saying this guy should have purchased better cameras so he could continue his ILLEGAL surveillance of the womens bathroom without consequence?

@Rhayader: Anybody remember Chuck Berry doing the same thing back in the 1980's at his restaurant in Wright City, MO? He got caught when somebody saw the VHS tape he was watching in his office.

Historical note: Yes, the name of the restaurant was really the "Southern Air". It's abandoned but still standing on I-70.

@Rhayader: How are red light cameras, which only go off when you break the law, unconstitutional? (Even then, how are government surveillance cameras on public grounds unconstitutional?)

@nakedscience: Uhhh, so? That gives the state incontrovertible rights to spy on the citizenry?

And no, I'm not really that paranoid, because I typically don't drive very fast or run red lights. Still, I don't like the idea that unprovoked government surveillance of the public is becoming a fact of life. I tend to get weird when the Constitution is being trampled, I suppose.

@joe18521: If the cam's for surveillance, why isn't there one in the men's room too? This is blatant heterosexism.

The whole concept of this is pretty much gross but I can't help but wonder if anyone has invented a camera that has smell-o-vision?

He must have been a single guy or looking for a partner for his restaurant.

@nakedscience: You can be if you are told you will be, and you still use the dressing room. Consent. But 99.9% of the places won't do it because of that whole minor who looks old child porn thing...