When Mirta Brown, 58, and her husband Luis Brown, 59, checked into the Bilmar Beach Resort in Treasure Island in early February, they did what many married couples do.
They got busy.
Away from home and free of the stresses of regular life, the Lee County couple engaged in “marital intimacy,” safe in the knowledge no one was watching.
It appears, however, someone was watching.
Or at least they assume someone was watching after discovering a 360-degree camera outside their window, a Hikvision Outdoor Speed Dome that allows its user to maneuver the camera to look wherever it’s pointed.
Shocked that their intimate tryst might have been caught on film, the couple approached the front desk where they claim property manager Marylou Planas said the two had “undoubtedly” been secretly recorded having sex.
That this was “what every hotel does,” Planas allegedly said.
Much to the couple’s dismay, Planas refused to produce or destroy the digital file.
The Browns believe the 165-room hotel has secretly filmed the intimate activities of thousands of hotel guests. To make matters worse, they believe someone from the hotel posted these illegally filmed videos on “innumerable” third party websites.
The accountant – who had worked at the United Nations – and her electrical engineer husband, who himself has worked on a variety of domestic and international projects, decided to sue the hotel. The Browns are asking damages for invasion of privacy, which caused excessive stress.
They also believe their professional reputations have been harmed, since they felt compelled to inform their clients of the incident, fearing the video could be made public at any time, a potential embarrassment.
“We found only one room that had a camera on it,” said the Brown’s attorney, Thomas Chase. “We don’t know if it’s still there, but it makes you wonder how many people have stayed in that room since it was installed,”
Chase added that the “sequential discovery, in this case, is going to be really interesting. That discovery process will seek to find out from the hotel when they installed the camera and who is responsible for maintaining it and any information it records.”
Bilmar Beach Resort General Manager Clyde Smith was unavailable for comment as of press time.
