A woman resident from Sacramento was alarmed to learn that a hidden camera was attached to her room – which she thought was a smoke detector at first, SFGATE reported.
Carlym Perry demands the truth behind the fake smoke detector which was placed in the ceiling of her apartment bedroom.
“On the back it says, ‘This is not a smoke detector. Will not detect heat or smoke. For video surveillance only,'” she explained about the equipment that was directed at her bed, saying that “It’s a really violating feeling for sure.”
She was informed by her apartment complex last month that a person would enter her unit for maintenance purposes, particularly to service the fire alarms. Perry noticed that the cover of the bogus smoke detector had fallen open a few days after it was installed. She did not bother to fix the apparatus.
Neither of them fixed the apparatus. They examined it closely and discovered that the smoke detector was disguised as a memory card-equipped motion-activated surveillance system.
The one who put up the apparatus in her room was even captured on a video contained in the memory card. It also holds recorded videos of every move Perry and her boyfriend did.
“There’s really no way for me to know how long it was there before I found it,” Perry said.
She informed her management office at the VivLeo Apartments about the incident and also reported it to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. In an interview with KCRA 3, the sheriff’s office said it cannot release any information about the probe.
“As a woman… living alone in any city, there’s such as sense of… when you’re out and about, you kind of have to be constantly on alert about your safety and your surroundings,” she said. “But you have a sense of safety in your own home, and [this] just kind of violates that.”
Since she found out about the apparatus, Perry decided to move out and stay with her family.
Apartment managers also allowed her to get out of her lease.
“I didn’t stay here at all after we found it because I was so creeped out about being here,” she said, leaving a warning to other residents to make sure that their spaces protect their privacy.
“People should be aware,” said Perry. “I know I would have never thought to look for that kind of thing in my home.”
