Airport Worker Tried Secretly Recording ‘Pretty Girls’ Using Toilet

A worker at LaGuardia Airport in New York was arrested Thursday for trying to film a woman using the bathroom with his phone.

Thirty-nine-year-old Samuel Rodriguez of College Point, Queens, was charged with second-degree unlawful surveillance, which is a felony, for an incident that happened Wednesday, 9 p.m. EST.

A woman entered a unisex bathroom in the airport shortly after Rodriguez stepped out of the single stall restroom. Upon hearing a beeping noise, she investigated her surroundings and found a cell phone hidden inside the paper towel dispenser. The device was angled in such a way that it would record anyone using the toilet, sitting directly across the dispenser.

The victim took out the phone and found it on a recording mode. When she proceeded to play the last recorded video, it showed Rodriguez hiding the phone in the dispenser, the Queens district attorney's office said. The Port Authority Police Department began an investigation into the incident after the woman reported the evidence to the police.

"The defendant is accused of an egregious invasion of privacy in an attempt to satisfy his lewd sexual desires," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, ABC7 reported. "The victim was literally saved by the bell when the defendant's cell phone alarm began to buzz and she spotted the hidden phone."

When Rodriguez was approached and interrogated about the incident, he did not deny his actions.

"I know what this is about and I’m sorry,” he told the authorities. “I was trying to video pretty girls. I was going to masturbate to it at home."

In another incident, an airline passenger was recently caught stealing more than £7,200 ($9,113) in cash at Fiumicino Airport, Rome. CCTV footage captured the moment when the accused stole another passenger's cash-stuffed-envelopes from airport security tray when it moved under the metal detector, before taking his belongings and moving away. The man was arrested by the police before he could take a flight to Russia.

“The money was recovered and returned to the passenger,” the border police said.

Airport Operators Association of United Kingdom said such incidents of theft are very rare in airports.

“Airports work closely with their security staff and local police forces to ensure that the nearly 300 million passengers that travel through UK airports every year do so in a safe and secure environment. Thanks to this secure environment, incidents at UK airports are extremely rare. Airports will continue to focus on providing passengers with peace of mind during their travels,” a spokesperson for the Airport Operators Association stated.