According to an arrest affidavit, a work crew doing a remodel of a woman’s bathroom in Austin, Texas, found a hidden camera the homeowner didn’t know was there.
Police responded to a 911 call and the victim explained to police that the camera was found in a hole behind a mirror.
The device was attached to a wireless antenna plugged into a hidden outlet.
The Austin Police began an immediate investigation, and the very next day, her next-door neighbor, Michael Sagues, 50, was captured on her video camera breaking into her home to retrieve his wireless transmitting camera.
(In March, a family in Northwest Austin was getting their bathroom remodeled and found a wireless camera behind the mirror. Courtesy of KVUE and YouTube. Posted on Aug 16, 2019.)
Court documents say that the day before the remodel began, a similar man wearing the same clothing was seen walking toward the house.
Sagues, they say socialized with the victim on previous occasions.
The camera found hidden in the victim’s house was a Phylink 720 HD Covert Wireless IP camera purchased online from Amazon, and are capable of wireless transmission to various devices, including iPhones and Android phones.
Police say Sagues purchased two of that specific camera from Amazon twice, one in July of 2017 and one in March 2018.
During a search of Sagues home in April, investigators say the found clothing that matched that seen worn by the suspect on the security camera, as well as digital images of the victim from the bathroom in various states of undress.
“We don’t know how long the camera had been inside the victim’s residence,” said APD Detective Chris Wood.
“We do know the earliest known purchase date for the type of cameras that were located was in 2017,”
Police executed six search warrants on the Sagues home and found additional cameras and more than a million digital images that may show additional victims.
