Police: Man Spied On Family For A Year With Hidden Camera

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (CBS Local) — A Florida man placed a spy camera in the home of a family friend and watched her family for at least a year, according to authorities.

Terry Sumner, 55, was arrested Tuesday. He allegedly told deputies with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that he installed a camera into a wall outlet in the family’s living room that allowed him to spy on a friend and her family.

Investigators said Sumner had full access to the home, including the WiFi password and alarm code.

“He admitted to placing the spy camera in the victim’s home and to having the camera there for approximately one year,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Sumner explained that there was a smartphone application on his phone that he would use to watch, listen and record activity in the victim’s home through a live feed.”

Deputies said the woman found the spy camera on March 5 and discovered the camera was linked to her home Wi-Fi without her knowledge. She eventually turned the device over to police, who linked it to Sumner, CBS affiliate WKMG reported.

Detectives obtained a search warrant of Sumner’s phone on Tuesday and found hundreds of videos from inside the woman’s home, as well as numerous pictures of child pornography, according to the report. The victims in the photos were under the age of 11 and were known to Sumner, according to the statement.

Sumner was charged with one count interception of wire, oral or electronic communications, 24 counts of possession child pornography, 24 counts of manufacturing child pornography, one count of lewd and lascivious molestation force or enticing, one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition and one count of capital sexual battery.