A woman found a hidden camera in the women’s restroom at Peening Technologies in East Hartford last Thursday and her co-worker is now accused of making secret recordings.
Darrel Lewis, a process engineer, was charged with one count of voyeurism, but East Hartford Police said there could be dozens of victims in several towns after Lewis admitted to doing something similar at at several other bathrooms and a church in Glastonbury.
The woman who helped put Lewis behind bars spoke exclusively with NBC Connecticut.
“I thought I was dreaming. I didn't even know what to do,” the victim said. NBC Connecticut is not revealing her name because she is a victim.
“I’m just in complete shock and disbelief. It’s just not anything that I was expecting," she said.
She walked into the women’s restroom and found a hidden flip camera.
“When I looked at it, it said it was recording for 25 minutes,” she said.
However, police said the camera had been reporting for about an hour and a half.
Police arrested her co-worker Darrel Lewis and said they quickly learned this was just the beginning.
“It's just crazy, all of this happened because I found that little camera,” the victim said.
Investigators said Lewis admitted to doing the same thing at Faith Family Church in Glastonbury. He had supposedly targeted churchgoers since 2009, including an 11-year-old girl.
“It’s sickening. I don't even know what to think about it. It makes me sick to my stomach,” the victim said.
The alleged crimes didn’t stop at the church. Court documents showed Lewis told police he recorded women in two bathrooms at his job and two women's bathrooms at his church since 2009 and had dozens of videos.
According to police documents, Lewis told police he gets a "thrill" from being covert and seeing women naked, particularly their "butts." He told police he would upload the video to computers at home, chop it up, save the parts that revealed women and create a folder for each victim, according to police documnts.
“I feel extremely violated but I feel worse for those other people who went through it longer than I did,” the victim said.
While the ordeal traumatized her, the victim, said she was thankful she made the shocking discovery.
“I’m happy other people are finding out about this and it’s not a secret anymore,” she added.
She was also thankful she stopped Darrel Lewis from potentially violating someone else.
Police searched his home and they were looking through his computer for any videos. Lewis was charged with one count of voyeurism, but that could change depending on the investigation.
