A 38-year-old transient was sentenced this week to nine years and eight months in state prison for making secret video recordings in public restrooms in the Antelope Valley.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said in a press release that Antonio Serrano was sentenced after pleading no contest to eight counts, including five counts of unauthorized invasion of privacy, and one count each of possession of child pornography, identity theft, and loitering around a toilet to solicit lewd acts.
Serrano, who was ordered to register as a sex offender for life, secretly recorded adults and children in public restrooms between May 1 and July 16 at a Starbucks coffee shop, a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and at the Antelope Valley Mall. A cellphone at Starbucks was discovered on July 9 by a woman and her 5-year-old son while they were using the restroom at the coffee shop near Avenue K and 10th Street West.
The woman told KTLA News that her son seemed agitated after he left the restroom. “My son used the restroom first and I used the restroom after him. I noticed he was staring at the sink perplexed and he asked me: ‘Mommy, why is there a phone under there?’”
When she looked under the sink, the woman saw the cellphone propped up by paper towels with the camera pointing at the toilet.
“The deputies discovered that the cellphone was running in a video-recording motion,” said Lt. Joseph Fender of the Sheriff’s department.
