Swimming Pool 'Peeping Tom'

@bluebell wait till it happens to you, it will happen then, you'll know the feeling of being helpless and sick to your stomach!

Thanks for your answers Hellymart it obviously unnerved you it all sounds strange doesn’t it
Ahh well I guess you ll never know unless it happens to someone else

No onestep I wouldn’t feel helpless in the situation I would have kicked it back presuming it had got pushed under there by accident Of course if it came back again I would keep it my side but no definitely not helpless
Now if it was a man climbing over I would have been well scared but not a trainer

Hellymart saw a hand deliberately positioning it BlueBelle!

Forewarned is forearmed Onestepbeyond
We know what to do now having been alerted by hellymart.

Don't kick it back, cover the offending article with a towel then take it to reception and wait for the culprit.
Or throw it into the swimming pool (sounds like a good suggestion).

It would be embarrassing, though, having thrown it into the swimming pool, to find that it was a young boy trying to grab his trainer back and the camera was in fact a pair of goggles.

Brismum No she thought she saw a hand deliberately placing it, just as she thought there was something in it which might have been a camera but could have been goggles. I'm sorry hellymart feels so threatened and vulnerable, but I would point out that there is a young man - in fact a teenager, so legally a child-involved, who has been tried and found guilty, with very little real evidence, of something he may, or may not, have been doing, and which he may, or may not, realise will soon become a serious sexual offence. Teenagers often look shame-faced when they haven't done anything at all.

He could have been scrabbling around trying to get his trainer back again and it was getting further and further out of his reach.

He may have been embarrassed by that.
Did he retrieve his trainer? He ran out of the leisure centre - with one trainer on or two?
I'm getting now.

Whatever happened, the receptionist now has him marked down as a voyeur and will be keeping an eye on him, innocent or guilty.

The man in the link was spying on a 15 year old girl; I doubt anyone would want to spy on an old biddy like me.

Trisher, I agree with you. He looked much older than a teenager, by the way. I assumed he and the woman he was with, were a couple, so when the attendant pointed out that they were mother and son (and that he would normally have been at school), I was quite shocked. But, given that he is only 16 or 17 at most, I would not have made a fuss or any kind of accusation unless I was absolutely 100% sure he had done anything wrong. I did not have that evidence - only my suspicions and therefore, nothing happened to him. But should something like this happen to me again (and perhaps also to some of you) - we will know what to do!

As you said you saw a hand placing the trainer under the bench at an angle, it does look rather suspicious. You also said there were only 4 swimmers that day so you would have noticed if the boy was wearing goggles in the pool. If he did and they were wet then why would he put them in his trainer? If he didn't wear googles in the pool then why would he get them out of his bag and put them in a trainer? Very strange! Can googles have cameras in them? I would have pulled the trainer into my cubicle and had a good look.

A long time ago when I was a teenager, a man sitting in front of us at the cinema put his fingers down the back of his seat and was touching my friend's leg, You could smoke in those days and she 'accidently' touched his fingers with her lighter. I've never seen anyone leave the cinema so quickly!!! Shame he missed the film, it was a good one.

The negative comments on here really P me off ! I hope the ones who made them never need a sympathetic ear, because you certainly wouldn't get one from me.

Have you nothing better to do than "Down" people?

Yorkshiregirl
hellymart said I still wasn't 100% sure and therefore didn't want to accuse him so he is innocent until proved guilty - except on this thread then?

I hate the unisex changing rooms in swimming pools, I feel very embarrassed walking around with my belongings trying to open a locker with my towel dropping of me next to a bloke getting in to his locker, I once met a schoolteacher of my children's he was always a bit flirty,so to have to stand there and make conversation with him while in my cozier was ,nt a very nice experience, it's put me off going swimming ,

Cozzie

Jalima1108 I never said he was guilty. I am just astounded by the lack of understanding from members. Kindness costs nothing, and even if the lad was innocent there is no need for some of the remarks against this lady.
Some just like an argument, and can be quite offensive.

Yorkshiregirl it's not so much the OP that concerns me but the assumption by some that this child was immediately responsible and 'up to something'. In my experience (and I have taken classes to swimming pools) boys in changing rooms create unholy messes, where shoes travel two or even three cubicles apparently without any help (or so they claim). Of course one boy on his own may not be as chaotic, but I would see a shoe getting into the next cubicle and him trying to rescue it, and only managing to make the situation worse as highly credible. Someone has posted that you wouldn't put wet goggles in a trainer, believe me that's not impossible, wet things finish up everywhere.
And arguably in trying to get the OP to see this as an unfortunate incident which might not be as dreadful as she thought we are offering her a sort of comfort.

Jalima1108 I never said he was guilty
No, perhaps not, but some have had him guilty without trial, hung drawn and quartered on this thread.

found, not had!

It is hard to think of what we should do on the spur of the moment but easy to do so afterwards. We all need to be on our guard when changing in public places. It is a very sad state of affairs when a teenage boy would want to spy on a mature woman. You did well to report it and hopefully they can keep an eye on him when he goes again.

This happened to me several years ago. I was suspicious why someone would select a changing room next to mine when the pool had been virtually empty. Looking under the shelf I saw a camera and was so horrified I screamed pervert! Before I had grabbed my towel and called for help the person had ran off to another changing room. The management team said they were unable to search bags for a camara. I didnt return to the pool for ages and now use a cubicle that backs onto a wall and in a corner. It was a horrible experience and I just wonder if the person had been doing this on my previous visits!

There was a report online recently of a young man who had inserted his mobile phone into his shoe and cut a hole in the top of the shoe for the camera to secretly take photos up women's skirts. I tried to find a link to paste here but when I googled it, I found many more instances of the same thing. Cameras in shoes seem to be very common. I don't know why feminists are not leaping on this because it really is an outrage of privacy.

Sparklefizz it is being dealt with . Upskirting will soon become a serious sexual offense which is why I am. concerned that a child should have been so labled and that no one has possibly explained to him the reality of something he and many other young people think is just a joke. www.theguardian.com/law/2018/jun/15/upskirting-to-become-a-criminal-offence-punishable-by-two-years-in-jail

I don't understand many of the abbreviations used by people who post on here.
I feel at a loss to understand a lot of the comments when abbreviations are used. Could a checklist be published so that I can copy it and put it at the side of my computer so that I can translate everything?

Annaram1 if you scroll to the top of this page and click on Acronyms all will be revealed.

There is a list of acronyms Annaram1. You can find it on the GN homepage. But I've copied and pasted it for you:

Forum abbreviations and acronyms
This is a list of the most commonly used acronyms used on Gransnet forums. Don't feel like you have to use them if you don't want to, but they may help you understand some of the forums better.

AIBU - Am I being unreasonable
BiL - brother-in-law
BTW - by the way
DBH - dear beloved husband
DC - darling/dear child/ren
DD - darling/dear daughter
DGS/D - darling/dear grandson/daughter
DH - darling/dear husband
DiL - daughter in law
DS - darling/dear son
DSS/D - darling/dear stepson/daughter
DW - darling/dear wife
FiL - father-in-law
FWIW - for what it's worth
FYI - for your information
HTH - Hope that helps