Man Arrested for Planting Hidden Camera

The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department reported that yesterday, July 22, a Carpinteria man was placed in custody on suspicion of hiding a camera in a woman’s home, using it to secretly film her in her own bedroom.

On July 17, the 30-year-old woman discovered the tiny recording device — cut into the spine of a Chicken Soup for the Soul book that had been placed on her shelf — aimed at her bed. Upon inspection, the camera contained both video and audio footage of the victim and her boyfriend as they spoke and were in “various states of undress.”

During the course of their investigation, Sheriff’s spokesperson Drew Sugars said, authorities discovered that the victim is an acquaintance of 55-year-old Donald Lee Bedford; one of her family members is friends with Bedford. Detectives served a search warrant on Bedford’s house in Carpinteria, seizing computers and other electronic equipment.

Bedford was arrested and booked into County Jail on charges of filming a person, without their knowledge, engaged in confidential communication, and using a concealed camcorder to secretly videotape a person, according to the Penal Code, “who may be in a state of full or partial undress, for the purpose of viewing the body of or the undergarments worn by that person … with the intent to invade the privacy of that person.” Bedford’s bail is set at $20,000.