A Surrey woman says someone filmed her as she showered at Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre over the weekend.
“I just caught something from the corner of my eye, up top, and I stood back and I thought, ‘that was odd,’ Sharlene Ramage said. “Then I looked and there was a camera, a phone.”
Ramage was in one of the pool’s private showers — which have walls that don’t reach from the floor to the ceiling and are used by both men and women — when she realized she was being recorded. She grabbed her towel and ran out to confront the Peeping Tom.
“I started yelling,” she said. “A gentleman came and I said, ‘This guy is videotaping me.'”
RCMP came to the centre but Ramage said the man had already left with his phone. She said police later told her that the man confessed and deleted the video from his phone.
She wants changes made so it doesn’t happen again.
“I have grandkids. I was filmed nude, showering. That could have been my granddaughter,” she said.
Ramage believes the design of the change rooms leaves people vulnerable.
“I would like to see the remodeling of the change rooms,” she said. “I’d like to see him banned from any of the public pool facilities until they can fix something like that.”
The manager who oversees the centre said they are reviewing the incident.
“Safety is the most important commitment that we have in our buildings,” Stacey Rennie, community and recreation services manager for South Surrey, said. “We will be reviewing the situation with all of the stakeholders and making sure nothing like this can happen again.”
No other incidents like this have been reported but the centre is looking at bringing in additional staff.
Ramage said she will still go to the centre but she won’t be using the universal showers anymore.
– With files from Jill Bennett