Police Find Nearly a Dozen Hidden Cameras in Woman's Apartment

Police found nearly a dozen cameras hidden around a young woman’s apartment in Kansas City, Mo.

The 25-year-old woman lived in an apartment above the tattoo parlor where she worked, and after her friend noticed the smoke detector looked a little strange, they took a closer look and realized it wasn't life-saving device at all -- it was a hidden camera unit designed to look like a smoke detector.

KMOV-TV filmed outside the woman's apartment (Images via KMOV-TV).

The woman called police as soon as she discovered the camera Saturday, and when law enforcement officers arrived they found ten additional cameras hidden throughout the apartment, including four cameras in her bathroom.

The Kansas City Star reported that officers began by inspect the first smoke detector and found it was connected to three wires:

"Police found three similar detectors in the living room, hallway and the victim’s bedroom. The victim’s roommate’s room had a normal smoke detector.

Officers found a bundle of wires in the victim’s closet leading into a gray pipe that extended down through the tattoo parlor and into the basement to some shelves. When officers moved boxes on the shelves, they found a computer monitor, which revealed seven video screens showing the interior of the victim’s apartment.”

Four of the screens were blank -- the four detectors the police had already removed from the wall. The other screens led police to find three cameras hidden behind pinholes in the victim’s bedroom.

Two of the cameras found in the bathroom were hidden in the sink vanity’s decorative trim, focused on the toilet. Two other cameras were concealed in the wall aimed at the shower.

Several companies sell "smoke detector" hidden camera systems; one company boasts "Looks Like a Standard Smoke Alarm, but Works as Your Eye in the Sky."

The woman told police her 47-year-old landlord and boss had propositioned her and asked her out several times, according to the Associated Press. She says he remodeled her bathroom in October of last year when she was out of town.

The woman has moved out, and police confiscated the cameras and computer to reviewing them for evidence, but have yet to make an arrest.

The incident marked the fourth time in four months that police in the St. Louis metropolitan area have discovered hidden cameras in a home or workplace, according to the Kansas City Star.

Watch the KMOV-TV story here:

—

(H/T: KMOV-TV)

Liz Klimas contributed to this story.

Follow Elizabeth Kreft (@elizabethakreft) on Twitter.