Swimming Pool 'Peeping Tom'

OK I believe you hellymart!

I’d have been tempted to involve the police. A visit from them may have been enough to put a stop to any further incidents.

Thank you (most of you!) for your sympathetic comments. I can assure you this is NOT a wind-up. I wish I'd never posted this now, as I've been called 'dramatic' and the implication is that I have made the whole thing up, or imagined it. Let me explain and answer BlueBelle's 'interrogation':

BB: How can a trainer under a bench see anything bar feet ? I tend to think that this was a trainer with his goggles in which got shoved under by accident and a story unfolded

I SAW the hand come under the cubicle and PLACE the trainer, at an angle, half in/out of my cubicle. It's a little bench at the end of the cubicle and if a camera was at the right angle, I certainly believe it could film more than my feet! I agree it sounds very innocent, which is why, at first I didn't think anything. I just thought the person in the next door cubicle had simply put it there (for whatever reason) but something didn't feel right. I peered down at it but I couldn't make out what was inside it (there was something but it looked like goggles - it could have been a camera, I thought, later). Because I wasn't sure, I dropped my towel over it and continued to get dressed.

BB: Then a towel was thrown down ..... well it can’t be thrown down under the bench, does the poster mean she bent down to feel under the bench and place the towel over the shoe ??

Whether you believe me or not, I DID drop the towel over the offending article!

BB: When the towel was lifted up was the trainer still there? Or had it already been retrieved ?

The trainer was still there but as soon as I took the towel away, it was retrieved. I then opened my cubicle door (I was dressed by then) and realised that the person had vacated the cubicle and gone into the next one along. That seemed very strange to me. Why? If he had nothing to hide.

BB:How does poster know he then vacated the cubicle and went into the next one, was she by now out of the cubicle and watching him ?

YES!

BB: He ‘eventually’ came out looking very shamefaced Wree you standing waiting for him to emerge then Hellymart ?

YES- because I wanted to see who he was, so that, if necessary, I could report him.

BB: If you were so ‘frightened’ you almost ran out the leisure centre why would you be hanging around waiting for him to emerge

I didn't say that I was frightened - I said that HE almost ran out of the leisure centre. Perhaps you should read the original post.

Also, someone asked me how I knew it was a teenage boy with his mother.. I knew this because there were only FOUR people in the swimming pool. Me, the boy and a woman (clearly together) and another woman. We all had to get out when the pool closed, so I knew there were only 4 of us in the changing area (unless, which was possible, one or two more people had come in, from the gym). I knew he was a teenage boy with his mother because when I went out to tell the receptionist what I thought had happened, she told me that she knew the family - that it was a boy and his mother (why was he not at school, she mused).

That's it. End of story. If it ever happens again, I will of course, pick up the trainer or shoe or whatever it is, and look more closely but until yesterday, nothing like this had ever happened to me (and I swim twice a week) and I had never heard of cameras or whatevers being put into shoes. I have not made it up, I did not accuse the boy because I was not 100% sure and an accusation like that could have serious consequences BUT I am 90% sure that he was trying to spy on me in the cubicle. I just hope he realises that I was 'on to him' (he probably saw me marching up to the reception, as he left) and doesn't do it again.

I m not discrediting it at all Foxyloxy just asking for clarification as a lot of it doesn’t make sense it certainly sounds dramatic but there’s no real substance to get upset over ,,, a trainer shows under the bench ? Basically that’s all there is to it the rest is all woven around that and a lot of imagination and supposition without any actual evidence that a crime or infringement of privacy had happened

There is no way I or anyone else can say how we would react, if we were in your shoes. Firstly you would have been taken by surprise. Secondly, you would have a million thoughts galloping through your head. You dealt with it perfectly correctly. I know someone who stopped a young man, with a selfie stick and phone, looking up ladies skirts in a pharmaceutical store. It’s not a new crime, very very many years ago, a driving instructor was arrested as he wedged a mirror down by the pedals.
I have given these examples, as a few people made comments to discredit your report.

Wind up?

I'll be the good cop (the dim one)

Are you ex police force BlueBelle? Your post certainly sounds like an interrogation.

We'll combine forces BlueBelle - I think we'd make a formidable team!

Oh, I forgot, I just said I was dim
Perhaps you may want to choose another partner.

Was just going to say, what a lot of clever clogs we have here , who know just what they would have said and done
Count me out, I'm so dim I wouldn't have even realised what it was all about

Are you ex police force BlueBelle? Your post certainly sounds like an interrogation.

Yes Jalima maybe the OP didn’t word it very clearly but as it is worded in the original post none of this makes any sense

How can a trainer under a bench see anything bar feet ?
I tend to think that this was a trainer with his goggles in which got shoved under by accident and a story unfolded

Then a towel was thrown down ..... well it can’t be thrown down under the bench, does the poster mean she bent down to feel under the bench and place the towel over the shoe ??
When the towel was lifted up was the trainer still there? Or had it already been retrieved ?
How does poster know he then vacated the cubicle and went into the next one, was she by now out of the cubicle and watching him ?
He ‘eventually’ came out looking very shamefaced Wree you standing waiting for him to emerge then Hellymart ?
If you were so ‘frightened’ you almost ran out the leisure centre why would you be hanging around waiting for him to emerge
I m so sorry for my doubts but this sounds very dramatic and not actually very viable Do come back and correct me

So glad to see your reply Yorkshiregirl. Was just going to say, what a lot of clever clogs we have here , who know just what they would have said and done and whose tone implies they find hellymart a bit silly! Glad to have more compassionate friends.

Well, I might have just wrongly assumed he was returning it to a friend or a relative he thought was in the next cubicle (mine) and kicked it back under. However, now you have alerted me, I will be on the look out and I thank you for that. I, too, never imagined such a thing as upskirting and secret filming bothers me a lot...especially around swimming pools. You did the right thing alerting the receptionist.

Many pools these days seem to have unisex changing rooms which are better for families especially where a dad may be taking a young daughter swimming. It always was accepted that young boys changed with their mums in the women's changing rooms but there comes an age when that stops being acceptable so unisex is probably the way to go. The last pool I used had the showers on the poolside and you were expected to shower before and after a swim so that meant showering with swimsuit on of course. Changing cubicles were segregated I think but there were larger 'family' cubicles in the middle. That seems a good arrangement to me.
Can't say I've ever considered peeping toms but if they took a peek at me changing I don't think they'd look twice!

I see Bluebelle had the same thought about the 'positioning' of the trainer.

What a horrible experience we are all troubled with afterthought but often at the time when something like this happens we can't quite believe it you certainly did the right thing reporting it

but underneath the bench.
I am wondering what kind of view could be had from a camera in a trainer underneath a bench.
The underside of the bench?

I think I would have investigated further to see what it was inside the trainer.
Or perhaps, in fact, I wouldn't have thought anything about it and would have kicked the trainer back into the next cubicle and would never have thought of anything like that.

Food for thought

I hope I would have done the same as you, OP, but I would probably have been too flabbergasted to drop my towel on the trainer. Well done!

I did wonder if the hand was trying to rescue the trainer and not place it, as was assumed. In fact my response would have been to shove it back under and possibly shout something about losing it. But maybe that's because I've taken so many children to swimming pools over the years and been told that somethng was definitely lost only to find it in the next door cubicle.

You did well enough. hindsights a wonderful thing! Downside of modern technology.

But hang on folks this really doesn’t add up, the trainer was under the bench how could it have captured anything to take a photo of ? did he push it out so far that if came right into the cubicle if not how could it have taken any picture other than your feet
What happened to it when you took the towel off it was it still there or had he pulled it back ?

I really think peoples imagination is running riot just because there was a teenage boy in the next cubicle

PS My local leisure centre has individual unisex cubicles and I've had cheerful chats with many people (men and women) in the water, by the hairdryers, and in the shower area. We shower in swimsuits!

I think my first reaction would have been to shove the trainer back or throw it over the partition. I might have wanted to open my door and chuck it in the pool but that may have caused the pool to be cleared.
With more thought I think the best plan would have taken it as soon as possible to reception. I hope the young man realises he was doing something unacceptable before he gets himself into serious trouble.

Our local pool/gym has one changing room for all, and while it was a bit of a surprise when they changed from the old separate changing rooms, it works out fine. At the time we had children of both sexes and ages from about 5-9, so it was a lot easier if you were swimming with a child of the opposite sex than having to wonder if they were all right or had lost something or were just dawdling. The rules are that everyone has to wear swimwear when showering or moving around, and I think it solves the self-identifying gender problem, as there is nothing to spy on outside the cubicles. I will now keep an eye on what happens under the partitions though!

It just occurs to me, do some of you assume that mixed cubicles are for more than one person (families excepted) at a time? That would be odd indeed.

Well done for reporting him, hellymart. Quick thinking on your part.

Mixed cubicles are very uncivilized. I would not join a gym that had them.