Man spies on women with alarm clock camera

NEW YORK, July 8 (UPI) -- A legal aid lawyer in New York was caught with a spy camera he had allegedly been using to videotape his female colleagues changing clothes.

Peter Barta, 32, bought a device from a Sharper Image store that looked like an alarm clock but really contained a small, motion-activated camcorder, The New York Daily News reported Sunday. Barta was caught by one of his female colleagues, who became suspicious when she found the same clock that had "disappeared" from her office in the office of a coworker.

She took the memory card out of the clock and found images of her coworker, the Daily News said.

Women in the office where Barta worked often changed clothes in their offices when they needed to wear a suit to court. Barta installed the camera in their offices, and then downloaded the racy images to a tape that was found at his Queens home, the newspaper reported.

Barta was in court during the weekend and may charges of unlawful surveillance, a felony that carries up to four years in jail.