Cops: JC Penny Employee Marco Bartolon-Velasquez Planted Camera in Women's Bathroom

West Palm Beach, Florida

Nothing pisses me off more than walking into a department store restroom, only to discover an empty soap dispenser or even worse, no paper towels! How can we make sure the damn janitors are doing their job?

Well, one dumbass in Florida has come up with a solution. The dumbass in question is Marco Bartolon-Velasquez, an employee at JC Penney. His idea, according to cops, was to plant his cellphone in the women's bathroom and recorded videos — so he could make sure his co-workers were doing their jobs.

Of course, police in West Palm Beach called bullshit and instead, arrested 26-year-old Bartolon-Velasquez and charged him with video voyeurism.

Authorities thought something smelled funny just after 9 a.m. Monday, shortly after the store’s Loss Prevention Officer walked into the bathroom, looked up at the ceiling and noticed someone had dislodged the ceiling fan, creating a space between where the fan would normally be affixed to drywall, the arrest report says.

The female officer looked closer. What she found startled her. The officer reports finding a black cellular phone lodged in-between the exhaust fan and the drywall, cantered down at an angle, with its camera aiming toward the bathroom toilets. The woman climbed up a ladder and grabbed the phone. It was recording.

Once police arrived and talked with the loss prevention officer, Bartolon-Velasquez’s name came up as the possible owner of the phone. When police dialed the number listed on his employment file, the cellphone rang.

After first denying any involvement, Bartolon-Velasquez later admitted that he used a 6-foot ladder to climb to the ceiling and plant the phone — only to keep tabs on store employees. It's not known what job he held in the store. JC Penney officials would not comment about the case.

"He went on to say that he had only done it today to monitor how well his employees were cleaning," the report says.

Bartolon-Velasquez then claimed he had been taping the employees since Christmas of 2011. But when detectives asked if he ever used the videos to correct employees work, he said "no."