Contract Worker at JCPenney Accused of Planting Cell Phone in Women's Bathroom: Report

Marco Antonio Bartolon-Velasquez, 26, faces a charge of video voyeurism

A contract worker at JCPenney was arrested for video voyeurism after planting his cell phone in the women’s bathroom and recording videos, according to a West Palm Beach Police arrest report.

Marco Antonio Bartolon-Velasquez, 26, of Delray Beach told police he put the phone there to make sure coworkers were doing their jobs, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

"Although we do not comment on pending criminal investigations, please note that the alleged suspect is not a jcpenney team member. He is a contractor with a facility maintenance company," said Joey Thomas, a JCPenney media relations manager, in an email statement.

A loss prevention officer noticed that someone had dislodged the ceiling fan in the West Palm Beach store Monday morning, the Sun Sentinel reported.

"[The woman] discovered there was 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," police said in their arrest report, according to the paper.

When she climbed up a ladder and grabbed the phone, she saw that it was recording, according to police.

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A police officer who examined the phone a short time later saw that its language was set to Spanish, and asked the woman who she thought could have planted the phone. Focusing on the store's Spanish-speaking workers, she suggested one name, Raphael Dieguez, the Sun Sentinel reported.

An officer called the number attached to Dieguez's file, the phone in the bathroom began to ring, and a detective found Dieguez in the stock room, according to the paper. He told police that Raphael Dieguez wasn’t his real name, but his brother's, and said that he used it for employment purposes, police said.

"He had been in the country illegally for a total of four years," an officer wrote in the police report.

According to police the man, whose true name was Marco Antonio Bartolon-Velasquez, eventually admitted that he planted the phone, but only to keep tabs on store employees, the Sun Sentinel reported.

Company officials would not comment to the newspaper.

He is being held on $10,000 bond, according to online Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office records. It was not immediately known whether Bartolon-Velasquez has an attorney.

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