Authorities in Michigan have issued a stark warning after discovering a hidden camera in a girl's bedroom that led police to a man who allegedly had 294 graphic images on his cellphone.
Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson announced the alarming discovery during a press conference following the arrest of 30-year-old Nickolas Lee.
Swanson said the trial against Lee began last fall.
“It all started with this,” Swanson said, picking up the small phone charger. “This simple cell phone plug-in, plugged into an underage girl’s bedroom.”
“But it’s actually a camera,” he said.
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Last fall, a camera was placed in the bedroom of an underage girl, Sheriff Swanson said. (Genesee County Sheriff)
“If you saw this plugged in, you wouldn’t realize it’s a camera,” he said. “That's where innocence was stolen. That's where privacy was victimized.”
“In this young victim's life, will they ever trust what is in their room again because of a simple camera plugged in for the sole purpose of recording images of a young victim in his room doing what we all do in our room, where we think we're safe,” Swanson said.
Nickolas Lee had 294 graphic images on his cell phone. (Genesee County Sheriff)
Lee's secret camera invention was discovered by the child's parents and immediately brought to the police.
“We were able to find Lee and arrest him,” police said.
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The 30-year-old's iPhone contained hundreds of graphic images of the girl in the privacy of his home.
This phone is the scary white van of the 21st century.
“This phone is the scary white van of the 21st century,” Swanson said. “This is where the world’s child pornography resides.”
Nickolas Lee was charged with using a computer to commit a crime and approaching a child for immoral purposes. He also faces 30 counts of child pornography for what police found on his phone. (Genesee County Sheriff)
Lee was charged with using a computer to commit a crime and approaching a child for immoral purposes.
He also faces 30 counts of child pornography for what police found on his phone.
Lee is being held on $600,000 bail.
Jackie Giurleo said she was relieved that another mother, rather than a criminal, was responsible for the AirTag inside the compartment shown here. (Fox 35)
News of the hidden camera in the Michigan girl's bedroom came after a Florida boy was found being followed by an Apple Airtag.
Jackie Giurleo realized her son was being tracked via the device, Fox 35 reported.
Giurleo told the outlet that she didn't own any AirTags when she started receiving iPhone alerts that one of the devices was nearby at a Christmas parade on Satellite Beach. A map of all the places her son had been showing on his phone as an undetected AirTag alert, she told the outlet.
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She searched through all of her son's clothes and toys and said her “heart broke” when she found the device in a quarter-sized hole punched in her son's shoe.
She said he had been following him for almost a month.
“Luckily it turned into a happy coincidence story of two mothers” Giurleo told Fox 35.