Women Spot Strange Coat Hook In Public Bathroom And Instantly Call The Police

We’re not talking about germs or bacteria here, though you should obviously be wary of them as well. Your restroom stall may look normal enough, but the truth is actually super disturbing.

Even the way people are encountering these new problems makes our skin crawl: Say a woman is spending a normal day out shopping, maybe with her young kids, when they make a quick pit stop…

They go into the bathroom, and everything is going normally until the mother notices something weird attached to the bathroom stall. It’s a coat hook — and there’s something about it that makes the mom quickly call 911.

Well, women in Florida have recently started finding odd coat hooks in their public bathrooms…blinking coat hooks. Concealed in these plastic coat hooks are tiny cameras, usually planted for the sole purpose of spying.

Creeps are using inconspicuous coat hooks to spy on women everywhere, from the bathroom to the dressing room to the beach. No one knows where all of these mini-cameras have been planted, but there’s been an outbreak.

Three of the cameras were found in Florida at Anne’s Beach Park at Islamorada, the Circle K store in Key Largo, and Harry Harris County Park in Tavernier. Still, women living in any area are urged to take an extra look in their public restrooms.

“Anyone who has a public restroom on their property needs to check them closely,” Florida Sheriff Rick Ramsey said. So as to prevent as many peeping-Tom cases as possible, Sheriff Ramsey described what to look for in these coat hooks.

There’s a tiny blinking red light at the top of the hook, which is the camera. Along the side are two nearly microscopic dots that act as lights. On the back is a small on/off switch, along with one more sinister feature…

A USB port. Apparently, downloading what has been recorded only takes a USB and an SD card, so it’s dangerously easy for literally anyone to do — and it’s not just public restrooms you should be wary of.

Police urge people to be vigilant everywhere, from public restrooms to hotel rooms to dressing rooms. The hunt for a hidden recording device isn’t as simple as finding a coat hook, however.

Mini cameras can also be installed in a restroom door as a screw, part of a bolt, or even directly into the door frame. Florida police encourage women to double-check the latch of stall doors, just to be safe.

What’s more, these cameras only record for a few hours, meaning the perpetrators somehow remain unseen despite entering and leaving a women’s bathroom multiple times in one day. It all seems too easy…

And maybe that’s because it is easy. The cameras are cheap (usually $13-$50) and simple to buy, so obtaining one is just a click away. Additionally, these inexpensive cameras can be used for way more than just spying.

The sellers often describe these mini-cameras as “nanny-cams,” so discreet surveillance is part of its design. They’re often used to keep tabs on babysitters, repairmen, and construction crews to ensure above-board activities.

After all, if pop culture has taught us anything, it’s that spy cameras aren’t all bad. They can actually come in handy in certain situations, like when monitoring criminals or when used as surveillance. They can even be used for good…

One reviewer wrote that a hidden camera helped her uncover the truth about a dishonest pet sitter. “I have the proof…on cam!” the reviewer wrote. But in the case of the coat hook cameras in restrooms, the word “good” doesn’t apply.

“There’s no way to know how long they’ve been there,” Deputy Becky Herrin said of the restroom cameras. This confirms one of people’s biggest fears: No one knows just how many cameras out there exist solely to invade women’s privacy.

And if you happen to find one of these creepy cameras, Sheriff Ramsay gave clear instructions on what to do: “Don’t touch it. Call us right away and [the police] will respond,” he said.

These concerns don’t start and stop with bathroom stalls. Starting in 2017, people were using cameras to violate their own privacy. It was then a photo-transformation program called FaceApp hit the marketplace; the app’s creators were hiding a secret that people were never made aware of.