Police say the airport employee confessed to setting up a camera in the bathroom, and he says he realizes he has issues to deal with. They are issues that have turned innocent people using the public restroom into victims.
Mattituck Airport is a tiny facility that is used worldwide on the North Fork. It has one runway, which services about a dozen private planes a day.
So to find out that airport employee Jeremy Martin has been arrested for hiding a surveillance camera in the women's bathroom is getting the small community talking.
"I really will not use a public restroom for health reasons," resident Laurie Brown said. "But now this?"
"That's just wrong," resident Joe Bartolotto said. "Really disturbing."
Police say Martin hid the camera from July to mid August in a potted plant in the bathroom of the facility. They say anyone who used the bathroom could have been caught on camera.
Authorities discovered the bathroom spying when one of 32 employees at the airport saw a device sticking out of a plant. Airport managers reportedly waited five days to take action.
They say they notified all employees first, then finally police once advised by human resources. They say, "As soon as police made us aware of which employee was arrested, we terminated him immediately. We take this very seriously and try to be as comforting as we can to our employees."
Martin, who admits to the bathroom spying, did not answer the door today at his home in nearby Riverhead.
Police say what Martin did happens more often than you'd like to think, but that doesn't make it any easier.
"It's disturbing," a police officer said. "It's always disturbing when you deal with a case similar to this."
Martin was released on $300 bail. He faces second-degree unlawful surveillance, which comes with a potential sentence of 1 to 4 years in prison.
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STORY BY: Eyewitness News reporter Emily Smith
WEB PRODUCED BY: Bill King
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