12 Times People Uncovered Cameras Where They Least Expected

Discovering that someone might secretly watch you is a chilling thought, especially in private spaces. Unfortunately, for some people, this fear turned real when they uncovered hidden cameras in surprising places.

• “I was regifted a plastic cactus figurine by a coworker. When I was going to bed, I accidentally kicked the cactus over and found a spy cam inside. I asked my coworker about it, and she was freaked out because a guy that made her uncomfortable had gifted it to her a few weeks earlier. She apologized for giving it to me. I tossed it.” featoutsider / Reddit
• “I found one of those ‘spy pens’ in my room. It had been there for a few days and activated whenever i came into the room.
  The first video was of my old housemate putting the camera there and making sure it faced my bed.
  I called him and was like ‘hey psycho. so. Want to explain this!?’ and after some utter crapola he couldn’t explain. I moved out a week later.” Daviemoo / Reddit
• “This is a little different. We lived next door to my dad’s parents. They had a key to our house because his dad would often come and let our dogs out. Well, we started noticing weird things go missing like a box of cereal, $5, just small things like that.
  So my dad set up a hidden camera in our kitchen to see if it was his dad, and sure enough, it was. One day he came into the house, stuffed his pockets full of dog treats, and left. We eventually changed the locks and didn’t give him a key.” Lyssann24 / Reddit
• “I come from a large family (5 boys and 5 girls.). As you can imagine, things get loud and raucous pretty easily. One night, my sister and I saw my dad discretely put a recording machine on top of the Fridge. When dinner started, we started being the most obviously polite kids: ‘Sister dear, would you be kind enough to pass the potatoes?’ ‘Of course, brother dear. May I refresh your water for you?’
  It only took a couple of minutes before my dad stomped over to the fridge and took down the recorder. ‘I was hoping to show you all how bad you behave. Well, so much for that. Shape up and start acting like civilized people.’ My sister and I still laugh about that.” Matthewrmt / Reddit

• “We had this roommate who had been acting weird in the past months, he was picking fights with us all the time and just kept isolating himself in his room every time we had friends over. He would say we didn’t respect him or that we were just pretending to be his friends and every time we tried to do make amends (we used to mess with him a bit) he wouldn’t believe we really meant it. We used to joke when he was not around that he was creepy and probably had microphones installed in the house. You know where this is going.
  One day we entered in his room for some trivial reason and found a old smartphone casually lying on the bed — yep — it was recording everything we said in the small apartment. Turns out he was always mad at us because he had been listening to everything we said about him behind his back, his weird behavior just made us talk more about him when he wasn’t home, which made him distrust us even more. After a lot of fighting we convinced him to seek help, now he lives elsewhere and sees a psychiatrist regularly.” Unknown author / Reddit
• I was staying in a budget hotel for a work trip. One night, while lying in bed, I noticed the smoke detector on the ceiling seemed to have a faint blinking light. Curious, I got up and inspected it. To my shock, it was a hidden camera disguised as part of the detector.
  The worst part? It was positioned directly over the bed. I reported it to the front desk, and their nonchalant response made my stomach churn. They said they’d ’look into it,’ but I checked out immediately. I still wonder how long it had been there and how many people were recorded before me.
• I was actually venting to a mutual friend about my ex after a breakup. He recorded me without my consent so that “he could send it to my ex so that he’d get off his back trying to get us together.” When I found out, I asked him to delete it. But I have no idea how many times he has recorded me in my moments of vulnerability. Never saw him the same again. The trust just wasn’t there. justananxioussoul / Reddit
• “My mom set up a hidden camera in my son’s room at her place to spy on me while I visit him there because she thinks I’m ’up to something’. She was asked by our social worker to take it down, but they couldn’t do much because it’s a private residence, and she’s apparently within her legal rights to keep it there.
  So the worker organized for all visits to be at my place instead because she refused to be accommodating and make me feel welcome. Mom was not happy, worker finally gets what I mean when I say my parents hate me.” kadesc / Reddit

• “This is a little different. We lived next door to my dad’s parents. They had a key to our house because his dad would often come and let our dogs out. Well, we started noticing weird things go missing like a box of cereal, $5, just small things like that.
  So my dad set up a hidden camera in our kitchen to see if it was his dad, and sure enough, it was. One day he came into the house, stuffed his pockets full of dog treats, and left. We eventually changed the locks and didn’t give him a key.” Lyssann24 / Reddit
• When I was 20 in the early ’80s, I moved back in with my parents due to poor decisions and became a disappointment to my dad. One morning, he woke me up, ranting about my behavior and mentioning things he shouldn’t have known. I realized he might be tapping the phone.
  Later, a friend called, spilling details about our plans that night. Panicked, I checked my dad’s office and found a tape recorder hooked to the phone line. I rewound the tape just before he got home and then recorded over it with another call.
  He never mentioned it, so I assumed I got away with it. Afterward, I warned my friends not to discuss anything suspicious on the phone again. My dad likely figured it out but said nothing.
• I’ve found a clock spy cam on a website that was super similar to the one I’ve always had in my room. I checked my clock, and the memory card slot was empty. I asked my mom about it. Turns out they got it to monitor my babysitter when my brother was a baby, they didn’t like her behaviour to him and fired her. Since the spy clock also functioned as a regular clock, they decided to use it as that. CaptainBasculin / Reddit
• My friends and I rented a beach house for a long weekend. While rearranging furniture to make more space, one of us noticed a camera hidden in a fake plant by the window. It was pointed right at the couch where we’d been hanging out.
  When we called the owner, they insisted it was to monitor the view outside. We weren’t convinced and left immediately.

With smaller, easier-to-install cameras now widely available, Bright Side shares tips to help you spot them and stay safe. Read more here.