After discovering a hidden camera recording her in a market bathroom on Sunday, Rabecca Johnston said there was an immediate pit in her stomach.
While she spotted and removed that camera quickly, not every device is that obvious.
“It was absolutely sickening,” said Johnston.
Johnston was celebrating her birthday at Balboa Park and stopped by a nearby market to use the restroom.
It was there, she says she found a camera hidden in a cardboard box with a hole cut out of it.
She and her boyfriend called 911 and then reached out to ABC 10News to break the story.
It's far from the first time a recording device was hidden in plain sight here in San Diego County.
In December, Carlsbad police found a camera in the restroom of a popular shopping center.
And in April, I covered the story of four women taking legal action after they discovered their alarm clock and charging block were secretly recording them.
“Unfortunately, they're extremely common,” said Tom Ham, owner of Spycatchers LLC and Ham Investigations.
“You can buy them in many places, all kinds of hidden cameras,” said Bart Santos, owner of Bulldog Investigations.
Tom Ham and Bart Santos both own investigation companies that identify hidden cameras.
”They're made to look like every common device you could ever imagine, and that's what makes them almost invisible to the average user is they've been placed inside of things that we're used to using on a daily basis,” said Ham. “So just by that familiarity, they become invisible.”
But there are still ways to spot them without the high-tech equipment that both Ham and Santos use for their clients.
“You have to look around for things that don't look, look out of the ordinary, a statue or something that doesn't belong there,” said Santos.
“Just get yourself a really good flashlight, take your time, be systematic,” said Ham.
Ham recommends asking yourself this question:
“Where would you put a camera where it would have a visible line of sight to what it is they're actually looking for?” said Ham.
The San Diego Police Department is investigating the hidden camera claims at Bi-Rite Market in Bankers Hill.
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