DOCUMENT: Crime

Mini-cam Found In Starbucks Loo

Wireless device, battery were stashed inside toilet paper roll

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Mini-cam Found In Starbucks Loo

JULY 13--Oregon cops are trying to figure out who stashed a wireless pinhole video camera inside a roll of toilet paper in a Starbucks bathroom. The camera, powered by a nine volt battery, was outfitted with a wireless transmitter that could have sent the video to a receiver up to 300 feet away, according to West Linn Police Department officials. The camera, just under an inch in diameter, was placed earlier this month inside the cardboard tube in a roll of Costco toilet paper, which was sitting atop the toilet tank. At the time the camera was discovered, the single-person Starbucks loo was occupied by a female patron and her two small children. When one child knocked the roll to the ground, the woman noticed a wire sticking out from the center of the t.p.. She provided the roll to Starbucks workers, who called the cops. Investigators, who released the above evidence photo, estimate that the hidden camera was in the bathroom for two hours before its discovery. (1 page)