WEIRD PHOTOS: News Of The Strange SlideshowORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County Fire Department employee is supposed to protect people's privacy, but police say he violated a female employee by using a small web camera to spy on her. Now, the information systems administrator has resigned from his job.
Police say Hector Ray Valle
(photo left) used a web camera at the Orange County Fire Department to watch the female employee from under a desk.
Fortunately, the employee noticed it. She was at her desk and she either dropped something or bumped her leg and looked underneath the desk. What she found was a camera and, when she took a closer look, realized it was pointed right at her, installed to look right up her skirt.
Valle was described in his personnel file as somebody who "earns trust and loyalty" while overseeing the entire Orange County Fire Department's computer systems.
Perhaps that trust went too far.
"It was really sophisticated where he could actually transmit wirelessly or through a cable network and I believe that's what he was trying to do," says Carlos Torres, Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Detectives retrieved the camera, but never got a word out of Valle, who resigned from his $67,000 a year job, immediately.
Valle, they say, knew what he was doing. He'd been working in the county's computer department since 1993. And, prior to that, he worked as a communications specialist in the Army during the first Gulf war.
"Anywhere, he would have access anywhere to be able to transmit any live footage from that web cam," explains Torres.
Whether or not he had transmitted it, detectives don't know.
The fire department has refused to comment and, when asked by Channel 9 about Valle, denied that anyone by that name was in any trouble.
While detectives work towards an arrest for attempted voyeurism, they say it's a scary reminder, that you never know who's watching.
"Just be aware of your surroundings; you're really not safe anywhere," says Torres.
Valle has been in trouble once before. He was arrested in 2000 for domestic battery against his wife. When reached about these latest accusations, he had no comment.
Detectives say, as soon as they're done with the case, they'll forward it to the State Attorney's Office to press charges. Since they don't have any proof that the images were transmitted, they can only arrest Valle for attempted voyeurism, a second-degree misdemeanor.
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