Inside the Apartment of a Peeping Tom

When a colleague at the Legal Aid Society discovered that Peter Barta had been secretly recording his co-workers changing clothes with the use of a hidden camera placed in their offices, police were called to investigate. The cops eventually searched the 32-year-old lawyer's apartment and collected boxes of material they considered possible evidence. The New York Post ferreted out the contents of these boxes from what it describes as "wacky court documents."

Barta lived with his mother in a Kew Gardens and was described by separate neighors as either nice or verbally abusive. The accused voyeur unsurprisingly had a large collection of pornography. Court documents said that Barta owned 90 porn videos and 211 issues of Playboy, as well as copies of "Celebrity Skin" and "Oriental Women." Police also collected several novelty gag items such as the "Grow a Girlfriend" sponge (pictured, right) and "Handz Off Anti-Masturbation Gum." We expect these last items were probably gifts from friends aware of the extent of his porn collection.

Barta faces charges of unlawful surveillance and could be sentenced to four years in prison. His lawyer says that his client would like to plead guilty, to spare his recorded co-workers the embarrassment of a trial.