Holidaymaker secretly films hotel employee rifling through belongings

Tourist used hidden camera app to turn his laptop into a spycam

Lucy Thackray
Friday 14 October 2022 10:33 BST
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Related: Safety tricks to do before entering your hotel room

A tourist claims to have captured his hotel’s employee rifling through his possessions while he was out of the room.

Arturo Brunello posted a video to the TikTok social media channel, saying he had used the app iSentry to convert his laptop into a hidden camera.

Mr Brunello did not name the hotel, saying only that it was in Cancun, Mexico and that management “handled the situation very well”.

In the video, a male hotel employee appears to drink a beer from the hotel room’s mini-fridge, as well as testing the door of the room’s safe.

He then appears to take a sunglasses case from the guest’s suitcase and open it, as well as opening and closing the room’s drawers.

“Our vacation got weird,” wrote Mr Brunello.

“I won’t be naming the hotel because they handled this situation very well. Just be careful out there and use technology to your advantage.

“I’m honestly surprised [the employee] didn’t see the green light on my webcam. Next time, I will be blacking it out. Again the app is called iSentry.

“There are others in the app store but this one was able to send me email notifications when it detected motion. 10/10 would recommend.”

In the video’s captions, Mr Brunello wrote: “Pro travel tip: you can turn your laptop into a security camera.” He also clarified that the employee he filmed was fired “on the spot”.

The video, which was posted last Tuesday, has already racked up 3.2 million views and attracted nearly 2,000 comments.

“The exact reason I don’t allow cleaners in the room while I stay,” wrote Krysten MacKenzie.

At one point the employee picks up one of the guest’s bags to look into it
At one point the employee picks up one of the guest’s bags to look into it (TikTok/@Arturbo86)

“This is why I barely take anything out of my case and I always keep my lock on it and travel with the keys always,” added another strictly private holidaymaker.

One follower commented: “I’m a cleaner and I’m too busy doing my job to do this. The beer made me laugh though.”

“New fear unlocked,” wrote a fourth TikTok user.

The employee opens something from the hotel guest’s suitcase
The employee opens something from the hotel guest’s suitcase (TikTok/@Arturbo86)

Some users commented that it was interesting that the employee didn’t seem interested in the laptop secretly capturing his movements.

Giving advice to followers, Mr Brunello said he “basically left [the laptop] open, minimized the window and turned the screen brightness to zero”.

In the comments, Mr Brunello also said “there was some other stuff caught on camera that I cannot share on tiktok,” as well as promising a part two video on the incident.

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