A Scotish couple on holiday in Toronto, Canada were shocked to find their Airbnb host may have been spying on them.
Dougie Hamilton was on holiday with his girlfriend when he found a spy camera hidden in an alarm clock in the apartment they booked through the home sharing site.
“We were only in the place for 20 minutes when I noticed the clock. We’d had a busy day around the city and finally were able to get to the Airbnb and relax,” he told the Daily Record.
“I just happened to be facing this clock and was staring at it for about 10 minutes. There was just something in my head that made me feel a bit uneasy.
“It was connected to a wire like a phone charger which wasn’t quite right. The weirdest thing was, I’d seen a video on Facebook about cameras and how they could be hidden and they had a clock with one in it, too.”
Hamilton said he didn’t want to be the “crazy guy that checks a digital clock for cameras” but something just wasn’t right with this one.
“I took the charger out of it and saw there was a lithium battery in the back. At this point, I slid the front facing off the clock and could see there actually was a camera,” he said.
The 34-year-old said he informed Airbnb right away, who told him they will launch an investigation into the camera.
The homesharing site gave Hamilton a full refund and provided alternative accommodation.
“We take privacy issues extremely seriously and have a zero tolerance policy for this behaviour,” an Airbnb spokesperson said.
“We have removed the host from the platform while we investigate and are providing the guest with our full support.”
