Tanning Booth Spycams

If you went to the Maximum Exposure tanning salon recently, a nude picture of you might be on a disc right now at police headquarters. According to investigators, the salon's owner illegally recorded customers who used tanning beds there.

Salon Owner Made DVDs Of Nude Customers

Police said when they searched the Reading, Ohio salon, they found receipts of purchases of high-tech camera and other electronic equipment that owner Mark Huffman made. Then, they found what are called "spy-cameras," commonly available online, some as small as a penny. One customer said in light of the news of Huffman's arrest, even the name of his salon is ironic.

"It kind of gives you chills," said Jennifer Farley, whose most recent visit was just last week. "It's been me, my mom and my sister. We've been all going there since we moved here." All of them, as well as anybody who's visited in the last three months, are potential victims of Huffman's alleged plot. Police said the suspect was secretly recording DVDs of naked women during tanning appointments. They're sifting through the seized DVDs to figure out exactly how many different victims there were, which will help determine the charges they'll file against Huffman.

"It's just taking the privacy away from you," Farley said. "You think you (have) privacy, but everybody sees everything." In what some might call a fitting irony, it was another piece of high-tech gadgetry that eventually got Huffman busted, Hamrick reported. A patron saw what he thought was a camera in a vent, and using his own cell phone -- a source of its own controversy recently -- snapped a picture of the camera and took it to police.

"I don't think I'll go back to the tanning bed again," Farley said. Investigators said Tuesday that they've received more than 100 calls from concerned salon customers, and they expect more.

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Posted by gremlin at February 23, 2004 09:59 AM