Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Kevin Dee Petersen, 68, was arrested and accused of placing a camera in a Kaysville gym tanning room.
- Petersen was arrested for investigation of 33 counts of voyeurism.
- The investigation is ongoing, and police are seeking additional search warrants.
KAYSVILLE — A man was arrested Thursday and accused of placing a camera in a tanning room at a gym in Kaysville last month.
Kevin Dee Petersen, 68, was booked into the Davis County Jail for investigation of 33 counts of voyeurism.
On Dec. 11, a customer at Vasa Fitness, 170 W. 200 North, used one of its two tanning rooms and while undressing, reported seeing a "small device on top of the tanning booth," according to a police booking affidavit. "The customer was unsure at first glance if the device was a motion detector or a camera. The now concerned customer took a photo of the device with their cellphone and sent it to another customer to get their opinion on what the device may be."
They thought it looked like a camera and told a gym staff member, who removed the camera and its power source, police say. The camera was identified as a motion detection camera.
The camera did not have a storage device, and police said it could only send files over Wi-Fi through an app. Police retrieved the device's serial number in an attempt to identify the owner, but the serial number had been removed, the affidavit states.
The person who placed the camera in the tanning room "had attempted to conceal the camera in plain sight with an unobstructed field of view of the entire room. The black face and camera lens portion of the camera had light-colored tape (masking tape) around the lens itself in what appeared to be an attempt to camouflage the camera," the affidavit alleges.
Vasa's IT department learned when it had been connected to the gym's unsecured Wi-Fi from Dec. 9 to Dec. 11. The gym also complied with a subpoena and gave police surveillance footage, a list of employees, independent contractors and customers who were inside the gym and tanning rooms.
Police say they identified Petersen through Vasa customer logs and his driver's license photo.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man plugging a white cord into the wall in Vasa's lobby and then plugging the cord into a camera from his bag. The man "then walked across the lobby with his cellphone in hand more likely than not to get the Wi-Fi password at the exact time ... in which the camera first connected to the network," police said in the affidavit.
Police said 33 customers used the tanning room during the period the camera was active on the gym's Wi-Fi, one of whom was under age 18.
When he was arrested, Petersen "initially denied being involved and claimed he saw the camera in the tanning room but he didn't tell anyone. He then changed his story to admitting he placed the camera but he did so as a joke and claimed the camera did not work properly. When confronted with more information he changed his story to having swapped the camera with a dummy camera and then returned the good camera to Best Buy," according to the arrest report.
Petersen denied having videos of anyone on his device or saved online, the affidavit states. Police are seeking additional search warrants.
"Kaysville police would like to express their gratitude for the public's patience and cooperation during this process," the Kaysville Police Department said on social media. "Please be advised that this investigation is ongoing."
