Toronto police say they arrested a 57-year-old man last week on suspicion of voyeurism after a woman found a recording device in a changing room at a hotel.
A criminal investigation was launched after a 20-year-old modeling and fitness instructor, Randa Asley, returned to her hotel room last Friday in Hamilton, Ont., police said in a news release.
Asley, who is also a professional dancer, had just arrived at the hotel to head to a teaching job, according to a video she posted to YouTube describing the incident.
Police say Asley became suspicious when she found several cameras in a dressing room and when her cell phone failed to turn on at her hotel room. Asley took her phone to the lobby to charge and opened the blue “kiosk” of a women’s changing room next to her hotel room, police said.
“I was looking at my phone, shocked, thinking this had never happened to me,” Asley said in the video.
As she turned on the “kiosk,” she found several cameras attached to black “package covers” attached to a screen. She told police she found four cameras, one on the screen and another attached to the cover, police said.
“I know there are cameras in all of these places, but this one seemed particularly remote,” Asley said in the video.
Asley eventually returned to her hotel room and noticed that her battery was dead, police said.
Her manager, who contacted police on Monday, says she contacted him from a Toronto hotel. “She’s great, she’s fine,” the manager said. “She’s had a really good couple of days from dealing with the situation.”
Asley then went on to tell her story on social media with help from her manager. She showed her manager pictures and videos she had captured during her travels from Argentina to Colombia to Honduras and her hotel room in Hamilton. “It’s not normal that I do this at my age. This is one of my hobbies and it’s one of my interests,” Asley said in a video of her videos.
Hamilton police then showed up at Asley’s hotel and found the suspect on property. Police said they also found what they believe to be a live video camera, located in the same room in the same location of the hotel, on the same day. Police said they also found several other recording devices in a women’s changing room nearby.
Police said the videos and cameras were taken in the building’s staff area.
The suspect, identified as a Hamilton resident, has been charged with voyeurism, police said. He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. It’s not clear whether he has a lawyer who could comment on the case.
In Asley’s videos and in the manager’s comments, he has described Asley as an “amazing” woman and said she can do anything she sets her mind to.
A few of her dance videos have been shared more than 44,000 times on YouTube, according to the popular YouTuber channel Viral Nova. Some of her short videos have thousands of views, and she has posted messages urging people to “love yourself.”
“So if you’re struggling in life it’s important to know your worth and to know that you’re deserving of the support of the people you love,” Asley said in one video.