The Boardwalk bathroom at 10th Street was one of the locations where hidden cameras were discovered.
A Philadelphia man has been charged with placing several hidden cameras in public bathrooms on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
Authorities announced the arrest of Harold Perkins, 38, of Glenview Street, Philadelphia, in a news release Friday afternoon.
Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland said in court documents that Perkins secretly planted recording devices, disguised as pen cameras, in the bathrooms.
“These actions resulted in the surreptitious recording of victims in a state of undress with their intimate parts exposed. This conduct demonstrates methodical and predatory conduct,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland also said that Perkins changed his clothes and wore different pairs of gloves while visiting the bathrooms in “calculated steps to avoid detection.”
Detectives from the Ocean City Police Department, the Special Victim’s Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department, agents with the Department of Homeland Security in Atlantic City and a K-9 Unit with the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General executed court-authorized arrest and search warrants at a residence and vehicle in the 4200 block of Glenview Street in Philadelphia on Friday morning, the release said.
“I want to thank the department for their excellent work and again assure the public that this type of crime will never be tolerated or go unpunished. I also want to thank the Philadelphia Police Department and other agencies for their assistance in this investigation and arrest,” Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement.
Perkins was taken into custody at his residence and remains in Pennsylvania awaiting extradition proceedings.
He has been charged with invasion of privacy and endangering the welfare of children by manufacturing child pornography, according to the release.
The investigation began on June 12 when a woman told Ocean City police that she found a hidden camera in a public bathroom on the Boardwalk at Sixth Street.
Police responded by conducting a search of all of the public restrooms on the Boardwalk and found “several additional” hidden cameras in the bathrooms at 10th Street and 11th Street.
Members of the public who may have any information regarding the investigation are urged to contact the Ocean City Police Department’s Detective Bureau at (609) 525-9131 and/or [email protected].
