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Peep show from the disco car park
By Chris Kamalendran
Fast on the heels of obscene graffiti being sprayed on the walls of a leading girls' school in Colombo, a group of young men have been caught in a perverse act of zooming into the women's toilet of a popular discotheque in Colombo.

Using one-inch miniature cameras hidden in air fresheners placed in the toilet, these youth who frequented social clubs and bars indulged in peep shows seated in their vehicles parked closeby.

The curtains on this 'sick night show' were brought down last Sunday when some alert guests kept a close eye on this group whose frequent movements to and from the toilet area and then to the car park aroused suspicion.

"This group was occupying one table, and we noticed that every now and then two people would go to the toilet area through the common entrance to the ladies and gents toilets," one of the guests told The Sunday Times.

He said he and a few other guests became suspicious of the group's behaviour and kept a close tab on their activities for some time before they noticed them watching a TV screen in a car parked outside. "Though we felt suspicious of their movements, we didn't know what was going on."

The night peep show came to an end when recently a discotheque employee detected the air-freshener, which he or any of his colleague had not placed there. He brought it to the notice of security officers.

"They told us that they had found an air-freshener pasted on the wall of the ladies toilet and it was very heavy. Some of them thought it could be a bomb and were about to call in the bomb squad. But we suspected it could be a hidden camera and asked them to hand over the air freshener to us.

"We found a security camera inside the air-freshener box and rushed to the car park, but by then the boys had taken off. However we managed to note down the car number," the guest said.

Describing the camera, he said it was one inch by one inch with a wide angle lense. The camera with special night vision ability has sensors and picks up pictures as soon as there is movement in front of it.

An official of a company dealing with security cameras told The Sunday Times this particular camera was available with three different lenses -- standard lense, zoom lense and rotating lense. A standard camera costs about Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000.

Another guest said he believed the same gang had taken pictures of a woman at a night club and then treid to blackmail her. The matter was later settled after a senior police officer warned the youths, he said.

"It is up to the hotels, restaurants or bars to be vigilant of such people. But that would be difficult if employees also get involved in such activities," another regular visitor to the disco said.

The management has been reluctant to complain to the Police for fear of losing business and also earning a bad reputation among regular customers.

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