ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – University of Central Florida police launched an investigation after a spy camera was spotted in the window screen of an apartment at The Pointe at Central on Sept. 20.
Barbara Busch said her 19-year old daughter moved into the apartment located at 2635 College Knight Court with her friend four weeks earlier.
Police responded after they received a complaint about possible voyeurism at the apartments near the Alafaya Trail.
“She was crying and she told me very frantically that she was in her bedroom and she saw a blinking green light outside her window,” Busch said.
Busch said without thinking her daughter ran outside to investigate the flashing green light and discovered a hidden recording device.
“It was a camera about the size of a cigarette lighter,” she said.
Court documents show a SIM card was found in the device recovered. Records show the card had a collection of photos taken by 55-year-old Vernon Crider, a pilot employed with Frontier Airlines.
“The only reason she found it is because it was raining that night and the camera happened to reboot and the camera is not set up to be noticed when it’s recording, and that green light indicates it was accidentally rebooting because of the moisture,” she said.
Crider was arrested and faces one count of burglary of an occupied dwelling and one count of attempted video voyeurism.
An arrest affidavit stated Crider flew into Orlando International Airport on Sept. 17 and was off on Sept, 19 and Sept. 20, the day the incident occurred.
Busch said after the incident, they requested to be released from the lease but were denied. Busch received a letter from The Point at Central which she provided to News 6 indicating they will not permit an early lease termination for her daughter.
“Well you can break the lease, all you can do is either sublet it, sublet the apartment your daughter was victimized in or we can split them up and go stay with a stranger in an apartment they had a vacancy for in the complex,” she said.
Meantime, Busch said her daughter has not returned to the apartment, however, they are still tasked with paying rent.
We reached out to Crider’s attorney for comment and he said he cannot provide a comment at this time because he is awaiting the full case from the state attorney’s office.