Three women were horrified to find a hidden camera in the bathroom of their rental apartment, while on holiday in Portugal.
Rubee Woo posted on Facebook about the incident, saying her friend found the camera when she noticed something was off with a power outlet.
"We finished packing the luggage to the car and handed the key to the police...and when we left," she wrote.
She said she called the police and went to stay in a hotel after the incident.
Woo's story is an increasingly common one with an expert telling news.com.au technological advances have made it easier for people to misuse the devices.
Associate professor of law and justice at Canberra University, Bruce Baer, told news.com.au the availability of these items has boomed while the price has dropped, meaning anybody can get their hands on them.
However, Chapman-Tripp partner Kelly Mcfadzien said the law around CCTV and security cameras is clear.
"Members of the public must be aware that cameras are operating and who owns and operates them."
A quick online search revealed hundreds of secret cameras for sale in New Zealand. The cameras include alarm clocks, watches, pens, car keys and even hats.
Recent cases in New Zealand have highlighted the issue, with the former top military attache to the United States being sentenced today to home detention today for planting a secret camera in a toilet.
Alfred Keating will spend four months and 15 days on home detention for planting a camera in a toilet at the New Zealand embassy in Washington DC.
The camera was discovered in the unisex bathroom of the New Zealand embassy in Washington DC in July 2017.
It had been purposely mounted inside a heating duct unit in the bathroom, at a height and direction that recorded people using the toilet.
This follows a former Wellington teacher being jailed last week for filming more than 50 women through a two-way mirror in his bathroom.
Some of the girls he filmed were between 12-14 years old.
Nigel Colin Edgecombe, 52, previously pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court to 49 counts of making intimate visual recordings and five of making an objectionable publication.
Edgecombe was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.
Newshub.
