Susannah Sudborough

Cape Cod Resort Employee Used Secret Camera to Film Women Showering: Police

A Cape Cod resort employee has been arrested for secretly videotaping women in the resort shower.

Twenty-five-year-old Anthony Mendes was arrested Saturday for electronic surveillance of partial nudity and misleading to obstruct justice by tampering with evidence.

Yarmouth police began investigating the crime Friday when the camera was discovered at an undisclosed South Shore Drive resort.

A woman staying at the resort noticed a small hole in one of the drop ceiling tiles above the shower she was using. Upon further inspection, the woman saw a blue blinking light coming from the hole. When she removed the tile, a camera fell out, according to police.

The woman then took the camera to the front desk and asked that the resort contact police. Mendes, who was working the front desk at the time, allegedly took the camera from the victim and waited at the front desk with her and her partner for the police to arrive.

A Yarmouth detective reviewed footage from a hotel security camera mounted outside the women's locker room. The footage allegedly showed Mendes going into the women's locker room, closing the door, reappearing 20 minutes later to look around and then going back into the bathroom, leaving the door ajar.

Police caught the West Yarmouth native after he failed to show up for his shift at the resort on Saturday. After having waited for him at the resort, police began to check associated residences.

Detectives found Mendes in the passenger seat of his girlfriend's car driving north on Forest Road. They conducted a traffic stop on Old Townhouse Road at 5:30 p.m. that day and arrested Mendes.

Despite being read his Miranda rights, Mendes waived them and admitted his involvement in the crime. Mendes was arraigned in the Barnstable District Court on Monday and was released on $1,000 bail. It's unclear if he has an attorney.

Mendes, a felon with 27 prior convictions, was fired by the resort.

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