Hidden cameras found in bathroom at Florida martial arts studio

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — A Florida martial arts instructor was arrested Friday after hidden cameras were found in the bathroom of his dojo.

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Pembroke Pines police said Robert Franco, 64, put nanny cameras in the bathroom hidden in a picture frame at Master Franco’s Taekwondo Academy, WFOR reported.

A 17-year-old female student at the martial arts center discovered the cameras and called her father, who called police, WPLG reported.

“The cameras were certainly positioned in such a fashion that not only was the level of trust violated, but so too was their level of privacy,” Capt. Adam Feiner, of the Pembroke Pines Police Department, told WFOR. “The content has a wide variety of victims being exposed at a time when they were at their most sensitive. The victims were unclothed, they were unassuming and they were behind closed doors in a restroom, either using the bathroom or perhaps changing their clothes.”

Investigators said Franco tried to destroy some of the footage when the student confronted him.

“That physical evidence is described as CCTV camera footage and general surveillance footage that the business had in place, that damaged equipment is now in the possession of the Pembroke Pines Police Department for additional forensic extracting,” Feiner said.

The camera footage secretly recorded children and adults. Investigators believe there could be more victims. Police said the cameras were likely installed in March when Franco took over the academy, WPLG reported.

“Anyone who may have been to that business whether you are a participant or whether you were a visitor, whether your a child or an adult, if you just used their dressing room or used the restroom, the Pembroke Pines Police Department wants you to come forward,” Feiner said.

Franco was arrested and charged with video voyeurism and destroying evidence, WSVN reported.

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