Hidden hotel cameras lead to arrests in China
- Guest installed pinhole cameras in at least five rooms
- Hotel manager detained after saying 80 per cent of rooms in Zhengzhou have cameras
Police in central China have detained a man who installed hidden cameras in several hotel rooms and another who claimed the devices were common in mainland hotels, amid growing public concerns over privacy outside the home.
A 42-year-old insurance company employee, surnamed Xie, was detained on Saturday night after at least five guest rooms at a low-budget hotel in Zhengzhou, Henan province, were revealed late last week to have been equipped with pinhole cameras, according to a statement from the city’s police bureau on Sunday.
Xie, who works in the neighbouring city of Shangqiu, bought the devices online and installed them in various rooms during his stays, but kept the filmed content to himself, the statement said.
Police also detained a senior manager of the Yutai Hotel, a 35-year-old man surnamed Song, for his sensational remark in a television interview that 80 per cent of hotel rooms in Zhengzhou have pinhole cameras.
Henan Television had previously reported that a young couple found one of the tiny devices in a socket below the TV in their room during their stay in the hotel on June 15.